^J^t^^^i 


oi  ^^»  ^^'"^"Smt  ^_ 


'%* 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


^& 


Shelf.. 


':^i.^^^- 


BV  110  .G7  1884 

Gray,  George  Seaman,  1835- 

1885. 
Eight  studies  of  the  Lord's^ 


With  the  Compliments  of 


€l)e  ^Dutl^or. 


•■  <v^  >;..;,:;,; 


EIGHT  STUDIES 


THE   LORD'S    DAY 


CAMBRIDGE 
PRINTED  FOR  PRIVATE  DISTRIBUTION 


Copyriglit,  1884, 
By  nOUGUTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 


PEEFACE. 


No  one  who  reads  the  "  Barapton  Lectures  "  of  Dr. 
Hessey  can  fail  to  appreciate  alike  his  candor  and  his 
devout  spirit.  And  no  one  can  escape  the  conviction 
that  if  Dr.  Hessey  is  right,  the  Lord's  Day  cannot  stand 
as  an  observance  obligatory  on  Christians.  In  respect 
to  its  authority  he  himself  places  it  on  a  level  with  the 
ordinance  of  ConjBrmation ;  in  respect  of  the  character 
of  its  celebration,  with  Christmas  Day.  Yet  he  himself 
pleads  for  a  peculiar  observance  of  Sunday,  to  be  en- 
forced by  the  civil  power,  as  well  as  a  peculiar  observ- 
ance to  be  paid  by  believers.  It  cannot  be  that  Dr.  Hes- 
sey is  either  wholly  right  or  wholly  wrong.  Sunday  is 
manifestly  not  in  every  sense  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  nor  in 
every  sense  its  successor.  That  the  two  are  in  some  way 
related,  is  proved  by  the  relation  of  both  to  the  contin- 
uous week,  by  the  continuous  use  of  the  Decalogue  in  the 
public  services  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  by  the  in- 
eradical  confidence  of  believers  in  the  underlying  unity 
and  consistency  of  the  whole  course  of  God's  redemptive 
dispensation. 

In  these  Studies  an  attempt  is  made  to  present  what 
has  seemed  to  the  writer,  with  growing  clearness  through 
many  years,  the  just  grouping  of  the  facts.     The  first 


IV  PREFA  CE. 

principle  on  which  these  Studies  are  based  is  this  :  The 
conduct  of  Christians  must  be  guided  solely  by  the  Word 
of  God,  intelligently  examined,  not  merely  as  to  isolated 
passages  long  or  short,  but  also  as  to  its  teaching  as  a 
continuous  developing  and  integral  revelation.  For  this 
purpose  the  book  must  be  taken  as  it  stands,  and  as  it 
has  been  always  held  by  the  Church,  excepting,  of  course, 
such  emendations  of  its  text  or  translation  as  general 
Christian  scholarship  approves.  For  the  cobweb  criticism 
of  those  who  are  incessantly  spinning  out  of  their  own 
fancies  ever-varying  theories  of  its  composition  and  au- 
thorship, accordant  only  in  the  denial  of  that  which  rests 
at  the  foundation  of  faith,  no  regard  is  given  in  these 
pages.  Of  the  persons  whom  Caiaphas  summoned  to 
testify  against  our  Lord,  it  is  written  that  their  witness 
agreed  not  together.  So  far  the  professors  of  the  so- 
called  "  higher  criticism  "  are  in  the  same  category.  No 
arguments  presented  here  would  affect  them,  nor  would 
any  others  that  could  be  framed,  unless  these  were  so 
smuggled  into  the  recesses  of  their  imaginings  as  to  seem 
to  their  inner  sight  their  own. 

These  Studies  are  addressed  to  believers  of  ordinary 
intelligence  and  education.  If  the  statements  made  rest 
upon  Scripture,  they  may  certify  themselves  thereof.  If 
not,  let  the  book  go  at  once  to  the  limbo  of  vanities. 
Very  little  reference  is  made  to  other  authorities,  and 
such  authorities  as  are  quoted  are  for  the  most  part  easy 
of  access.  In  no  case  is  their  testimony  essential  to  the 
argument  pursued. 

The  writer  is  not  wholly  ignorant  of,  and  not  at  all 
indifferent  to,  the   results  of  scholarship,  research,  and 


PREFACE.  V 

discovery,  in  our  own  day.  The  illustrations  of  Scripture 
which  they  furnish  are  happily  becoming,  almost  as  fast 
as  they  are  obtained,  the  common  property  of  educated 
Christians.  But  the  Christian  heart  rests  only  on  "the 
law  and  the  testimony."     To  them  we  appeal. 

The  second  principle  on  which  these  Studies  are  based 
in  this.  Christian  consciousness,  through  the  ages,  has 
been  at  heart  always  right.  It  has  not  been  able  at 
once  to  analyze  and  define  that  which  it  has  always  felt. 
The  act  of  definition  requires  a  perception  of  that  which 
is  to  be  contrasted  with  the  truth,  or  at  least  distinguished 
from  it.  First,  Antichrist  must  appear,  then  the  Lord 
will  return.  In  this  little  book  an  effort  is  made  to  de- 
fine and  distinguish  that  which  believei'S  all  feel.  So 
far  as  this  book  wins  the  acceptance  of  believers  who 
patiently  and  devoutly  study  the  Scripture  to  learn  the 
meaning  of  the  Lord's  Day,  it  will  be  successful. 

Probably  some  errors  and  inadvertencies  may  remain 
undiscovered.  Many  points  of  interest  and  importance 
have  been  passed  over,  or  barely  glanced  at,  for  the  sake 
of  brevity.  Some  of  these  may  have  been  undeservedly 
omitted.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  some  statements  are 
deficient  in  clearness,  or  even  in  perfect  accuracy,  al- 
though this  has  been  the  writer's  special  aim.  If  with 
all  their  faults  these  Studies  serve  to  direct  and  stimulate 
Christian  thought  to  appreciate  both  the  divine  and  the 
human  side  of  the  day  of  loyalty  to  Christ,  and  so  his 
name  be  honored,  it  is  enough.  Perhaps  some  other  pen 
may  be  moved  more  clearly  and  accurately  to  present  the 
truth,  and  then  the  writer  will  be  satisfied  though  his 
book  should  be  forgotten. 


CONTENTS. 


STUDY  I. 

THE   PHENOMENA   OF   THE   DAY, 

PAGE 

Its  names  distinguished 2 

The  Church  has  not  yet  adequately  expressed  her  thought 

about  the  Lord's  Day  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  2 

General  conditions  for  learning  any  particular  path  o£  duty     .  2 

The  Lord's  Day  is,  L,  an  institution         .         .        .         .         .  4 

The  Lord's  Day  is,  IL,  a  festival 9 

The  Lord's  Day  is,  III.,  an  observance  associated  with  loyalty 

to  God 13 

The  Lord's  Day  compared  w;th  other  observed  da,ys  in  two 

classes 14 

Loyalty  in  first  class  involves  citizenship  —  birthright  — 

heartiness 14 

Special  appeal  in  second  class 15 

The  Lord's  Day  belongs  to  first  class,  hence  is  associated  with 

loyalty         ..........         15 

Loyalty  further  defined  :    subordination  ;  unchangeableness  ; 

spontaniety 16 

Loyalty  characteristic   of  Lord's    Day  ;  essential  reason  for 

public  worship      ........  .  16 

Is  public  worship  decreasing  ?   Effects  of  decrease  or  increase         26 
Tendency  to  magnify  loyalty  to  Christ  as  compared  with  dif- 
ferences among  Christians    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         27 

Recent  evidences  of  confraternization      .        .         .         .         .         27 

Unity  of  the  Church  manifested  in  assemblies  of  the  Lord's 

Day 27 

STUDY  IL 

THE   ORIGINATION   OF   THE   LORD's   DAY. 

The  observance  traced  back  to  the  Apostolic  Age  .         .  30 

General  assembly  for  worship  of  Christ  invariably  feature  of 

the  day 31 

Definition  or  analysis  of  worship 33 


Till 


CONTENTS. 


Festival  character  of  the  day  equally  ancient  . 

Acceptance  of  the  name  Sunday      .... 

Three  premises  :  silence  of  Scripture  ;  inspired  guidance  of 

Church ;  explanation  of  Scripture 
Peculiarity  of  the  Lord's  Day  ;  weekly,  not  annual 
Significance  of  phrase  "  Lord's  Day  "  as  applied  to  first  day 

of  the  ■week  ....... 

Significance  of  phrase  "Lord's  Day"  as  occurring  once  only 

in  Scripture 

Impression  of  our  Lord's  living  manhood  by  his  appearances 
Impression  of  our  Lord's  divinity  by  his  non-appearances 
Some  reasons  for  brevity  in  inspired  narratives 
'*  First  day  of  the  week  "  only  note  given  of  the  time  of  the 

resurrection  . 

Six  days'  interval  between  Resurrection  Day  and  first  day  of 

next  week     ........ 

The  first  evening  interview  with  the  disciples 
The  walk  to  Emmaus       ...... 

The  Lord's  departure  ;  his  majesty  ;  his  abstention 

The  Lord's  reappearance  on  the  next  Lord's  Day  . 

Succeeding  Sundays,  and  other  appearances  of  the  Lord 

Paraphrase  of  the  Pauline  list  of  appearances 

Assertions  :  The  Lord's  manifestations  on  1st  days  probable  ; 

and  2,  not  inconsistent  with   any    Scripture  ;    3.  Nothing 

ever  weakened  the  association  of  his  presence  with  the  day 

Pentecost 

Early  converts;  transient  sojourners  ;  peculiar  life  of  city 
Paul's  injunction  to  the  Church  at  Corinth 

Paul's  Sunday  at  Troas . 

Summary  of  the  evidence  from  Scripture  notices     . 


33 
33 

33 
34 

34 

34 
37 
38 
39 

39 

40 
40 
41 
44-46 
47 
47 
48 


48 
50 
51 
52 
53 
54 


STUDY  IIL 


THE    WEEK. 

The  Lord's  Day  has  been  continued  by  the  influence  of  the 

Holy  Spirit,  not  by  command        .         .         .         .         .         .  56 

The  Lord's  Day  connected  with  past  history  by  the  statement 

that  it  is  first  of  the  iceek 57 

1.  The  week  is  the  invariable  and  unbroken  succession  of 

days  in  sevens      .........  58 

*^  George  Smith's  Assyrian  Calendar  ....  58 

Nundines 59 

No  other  time  period  invariable 69 


CONTENTS.  IX 

2.  The  week  is  an  arbitrary  period ;  meaning  of  arbitrary  as 

here  used      .........  62 

Hy])Othesis  of  a  lunar  origin  of  the  week           .         .         .  62 

Hypothesis  tested 63 

Outline  of  argument 63 

3.  The  -week  a  sacred  period;    meaning  defined;   argument 

outlined 66 

Historical  argument          .......  66 

A.  The  week  used  only  by  communities  worshiping  God  6  7 

B.  The  week  has  a  divine  warrant  .         .         .         .         .  69 

C.  The  week  has  its  origin  and  model  in  the  example  of 

God  himself 70 

t-  The  week  is  a  thought  of  God,  not  an  invention  of  man  71 

4.  The  week  is  maintained  by  the  maintenance  of  its  sacred 

day 71 

Conditions  involved  in  its  maintenance    ....  72 

•--Result    of  an   obliteration  of   the  religious  character  of 

Sunday           .........  72 

Possibility  of  a  substitute          ......  73 

Obliteration  of  all  days  of  the  week  probable  ...  73 

Meaning  of  Scriptural  emphasis  on  the  week          ...  75 

The  bond  between  God  and  man 76 


STUDY  IV. 


THE   PRIMEVAL   SACRED   DAY. 

History  of  sacred  day  has  three  parts.     Its  characteristics  in 

first  and  last  ages  are  the  essential  ones 
Compare  Genesis  with  the  New  Testament 
Five  days   mentioned   in   Noah's  history  as   boundaries    of 

weeks  ........... 

Months  in  the  Noachian  story ;  the  date  of  the  ark's  grounding 

A.  Lunar  months  are  a  natural  calendar 

Requisites  for  any  other  calendar 

B.  Lunar  months,  Mosaic  and  Hebrew  calendar 

C.  Lunar  months  explain  the  Noachian  story 

Assumed  calendar  of  the  ark        .... 

Sacred  days  in  this  calendar         .... 
The  saci'ed  days  not  Sabbaths  in  Jewish  or  Mosaic  sense 
The  sattred  days  marked  so  as  to  be  recognized 
The  sacred  days  marked  by  sacrifice       .... 
The  sacred  days  factors  in  the  idea  of  sacrifice 


78 
78 

79 
80 
87 
88 
93 
93 
95 
95 
95 
95 
95 
96 


CONTENTS. 


The  sacred  days,  meaning  of  the  silence  of  Scripture  on  this 

point 

The  sacred  day  marked  by  re^citations  of  Scripture 
The  sacred  day  reproduced  provisionally         . 
Why  should  men  have  kept  such  a  day  ? 
Significance  of  the  primeval  sacred  day  . 


97 

97 

99 

100 

100 


STUDY   V. 


THE   MOSAIC   SABBATH. 

Design  of  Mosaic  laws  to  be  studied  rather  than  execution 
Results  of  Israel's  non-conformity    ..... 
Why  was  this  law  not  earlier  introduced?  Nation;  race;  ter 

ritory 

Three  premises  :  (1.)  Thoughts  of  God  to  be  studied  in  this 
legislation  itself    ........ 

(2.)  As  adapted  to  Canaan  only       .... 

(3.)  And  to  agricultural  people 
Mosaic  system  dual ;  sacrifice  ;  sacred  times    . 
Koot  of  all  in  the  promise         ...... 

Blessing  was  to  come  through  sinful  nation 

Its  end  and  means 

Sabbath  contrasted  with  sacrifice 

Sabbath  contrasted  with  primeval  sacred  day  as  to  rest 
Sabbath,    token   of    national   coherence ;    national   self-con 
sciousness    ......... 

Sabbath  designated  as  the  sign  of  national  loyalty  . 
Sabbath  rest  compared  with  its  employments 

The  agricultural  village 

"The  stranger's  observation  of  its  Sabbath 

Abuse  of  the  Sabbath;  due  observance  free  and  uncompelled 

The  Convocation 

Essential  sabbatic  rest  as  related  to  the  Convocation 
Convocation  in  the  wilderness          ..... 
Convocation  in  the  wilderness  had  traditionary  effect 
The  Levites  :  (1.)    Theologians 

(2.)  Not  priests 

(3.)  Administrators 

(4.)  Pastors 

(5.)  Dependant 

The  Levites  at  the  village  Convocation   .... 

The  instruction  of  children      ...... 

The  ideal  village  Sabbath 


103 
103 

104 

105 
106 
106 
106 
107 
107 
107 
108 
109 

111 
112 
112 
113 
114 
116 
116 
117 
117 
118 
119 
119 
121 
122 
122 
122 
123 
124 


CONTENTS.  XI 
STUDY  VI. 

THE   SABBATIC   SYSTEM   OF   ISRAEL. 

The  promise  twofold ;  development  of  atonement  and  of  loyalty  126 
The  Mosaic  dispensation  a  trust ;  routine  disciplinary  to  pre- 
pare for  spontaneity 127 

The  weekly  Sabbath  alone  insufficient  for  preparatory  disci- 
pline required 127 

Members  of  the  sabbatic  system  ;  distinctions          .         .         .  127 

Members  of  the  sabbatic  system  ;  similarities  .         .         .128 

Effect  of  the  system  on  agricultural  villages     .         .         .         .132 

I.  Indefinite  enlargement  of  their  idea  of  the  Sabbath  .  132 

II.  Two  contrasted  administrations  of  society         .         .  135 

III.  Readjustment  of  social  conditions      ....  138 
Readjustment  according  to  law  and  record;  birth- 
right and  divine  patent           .....  139 

IV.  Removal  of  indignities 140 

Removal  of  ancient  slavery 141 

V.  Divine  Providence  :  1st.  Prerogative;   2d.  Benevo- 
lence            142 

A.  Arrest  of  tillage 144 

B.  Non-accumulation  of  land         .         .         .         .  1 45 

C.  Universal  sharing     ......  145 

VI.  National  brotherhood;  pursuits  of  sabbatic  years      .  146 

Travel  for  trade,  craft- work,  or  study        .         .         .  147 

Farmers  in  the  larger  cities 147 

VII.  Incompleteness  and  inadequacy  of  the  system  .         .  149 
Later  Jewish  Sabbath  distinguished  from  the  Mosaic  150 
Meaning  of  text  lost  by  disregarding  illustrations      .  151 
Sabbatic  ideas  should  have  become  perfectly  famil- 
iar            152 

Sabbatic  ideas  when  thoroughly  familiar,  then  sensi- 
bly incomplete         153 

Riddles  of  Providence  to  be  solved  only  by  Christ    .  154 

Sacrificial  system  equally  incomplete  and  inadequate  154 

Prophecies  of  the  consummation  by  the  Coming  One  155 

STUDY  vn. 

THE   PERMANEKT   AXD    THE   TRANSIENT   IN   THE    SABBATIC 
SYSTEM. 

Influences  designed  to  impress  its  preparative  and  transient 

nature 156 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Consummation  as  yet  unconceived  ;  hence  threefold  riddle      .       158 
I.  Territorial  riddle ;    Sabbath  pervasive    in  principle 

but  limited  to  territory 158 

II.  Administrative  riddle  ;  inconsistent  elements  in  reg- 
ulations .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .161 

Evils  tolerated  for  sake  of  educational  contrast  must 

at  some  time  be  eliminated    .         .         .         .         .163 

III.  Riddle  of  sacred  times  ;  development  of  the  idea  of 

sacredness      ........       165 

Original  familiarity  with  God  to  be  unlearned;  Cain; 

the  face  of  God     . 166 

Prominence  of  sacrifice  after  the  flood.    Intermission 

of  sacrifice  in  Egypt       .         .         .         .         .         .168 

Riddle  duplicate  ;  embracing   week   succession   and 

week  plan       .         .         .         .         .         .         .        .170 

Inconsistency  in  week  succession  at  spring  and  fall 

festivals  explainable 171 

Inconsistency  in  week  plan  ;  preliminary ;  quality  of 

number 172 

System  of  sevens  novel.    Emi:)hasis  in  its  progression 

and  symmetry        .         .         .         .         .         .         .172 

Sabbaths  of  Unleavened  Bread  and  Tabernacles       .       1 73 
Pentecost  compared  Avith  the  other  festivals  ;  its  lib- 
erty         183 

Its  reckoning  (note) 183 

Its  enactment  arbitrary;  not  anniversary  of  the 

law;  significance  in  future      .         .         .         .183 
Its  title;  finished   series   of    Sabbaths;   greater 

Sabbath  succeeding 184 

Jubilee ;  most  prominent  observance ;  repeats  teach- 
ing of  Pentecost 184 

Conditions  of  problem  illustrated  by  industry  of  blossom  and 

fruit  culture 190 

Key  to  riddles  in  the  Abrahamic  promise         .         .         .         .       192 

Indication  of  permanent  and  transient  features  in  sabbatic 

system  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .193 

The  INlosaic  Sabbath,  wherein  Mosaic  necessarily  transient     .       193 

A.  It  was  not  universally  extensible         .         .         .         .195 
Inseparable  from  system,  except  by  Messiah.     Sepa- 
rate pharisaic  Sabbath  .         .         .         .         .         .195 

Physical  obstacle  to  extension  of  Mosaic  Sabbath       .       198 

B.  It  was  not  a  positive,  unalloyed  blessing     .        .        .201 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


(a.)  In  verbal  form  ordinances  were  only  restrictive  . 
Restrictions    incongruous   with  development    of 

modern  society  ..... 

Negative  and  positive  blessing  compared 
(b.)  In  practical  operation  the  ordinances  were  com 

pulsory 

Freedom  necessary  for  unalloyed  blessedness 
(c.)  Mosaic  Sabbath  did  not  refer  to  the  Seed  who 
blesses       ....... 

The  resurrection 


201 

202 
203 

204 
204 

206 
206 


STUDY  VIII. 


THE   FOURTH    COMMANDMENT. 


One  living  thought  of  God  underlying  both  old  and  new  cov- 
enants  

Illustration  from  tree  life 

Vital  thoughts  perpetuated  from  sabbatic  rest ;  system  ;  sep- 
aration from  sacrifice    ........ 

Ancient  preparation  and  prophecy  for  change  from  seventh  to 
first  day  :  — 

(«.)  Emphasis  on  seventh  day  .... 

(b.)  Limited  series  of  seventh  days 

(c.)  After  closed  series,  greater  Sabbath  on  first  day 

(c?.)  Perspective  in  the  system  .... 

(e.)  Practical  experience  of  brotherhood 
(/.)  Practical  experience  of  routine  drill  and  training 
(7.)  Practical  experience  of  expression  of  loyalty    . 
(h.)  Practical  experience  of  birthright 
The  vital  principle  underlying  possible  union  of  man  to  God 

stated  by  God  himself  without  human  mediation 
The  Decalogue  unique  as  to 

I.  External  circumstances 
II.  Explicitness      ..... 

III.  Universal  comprehensibility 

IV.  Treatment 

V.  Its  title,  covenant,  and  testimony 

Names  mutually  explanatory 

(Ritual  law  on  account  of  transgression) 

VI.  Its  correspondence  with  promise 

Church  has  conformed  to  Scripture  in  using  Decalogue  in  her 

public  services 


.   220 

222 

.   223 

.   224 

.   225 

.   226 

.   227 

230 

207 
207 

208 


209 
210 
211 
212 
213 
213 
216 
216 

218 


231 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


Under  superintendence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Fourth  Command- 
ment necessarily  applied  to  the  Lord's  Day 
Covenant  and  testimony  endure  under  Christian  dispensation 
Meaning  of  words  "  seventh  day,"  before,  under,  and  after 

the  sabbatic  system 

Meaning  of  words  "  not  any  work  "  ;  two  Mosaic  interpreta- 
tions      

Meaning  of  suspension  of  bread-winner's  efforts  in  both 

(1.)  No  trace  of  the  strict  observance  of  the  patriarchal  age 
(2.)  Mosaic  weekly  Sabbath  national 
(3.)  No   considerable  part   of   Church  ever   attempted 
rigidity      ........ 

(4.)  Purpose  of  Mosaic  stringency;  uniformity;  univer 

sality  . 

(5.)  "  Not  any  work  "  an  end  or  a  means  to  an  end 
(6.)  The  Convocation  "  holy  "         .... 
Essence  of  the  command  "  keep  it  holy";  meaning  illustrated 
by  original  sentiment;  exercises;  typical  significance 
Harmony  in  this  of  Old  and  New  Testaments 
The  Church  "  keeps  holy  "  her  Sabbath  more  fully  and  more 
accurately  than  Israel  could  his    .... 

A.  As  institution 

(a.)  Testimony 

Political  acknowledgment  of  the  Lord 
(J.)  Promise  and  expectation 

B.  Festival  ;  perfect  removal  of  curse 
Sociality ;  instruction ;  ease 
All  holy  activity 

C.  Observance  ;  personal  waiting  on  the  Lord  together 

and  apprehending  Him  .... 
Sacrament  of  loyalty  ..... 
Duty  of  public  testimony  .... 
Imperial  experience  of  care  for  vast  interests  of  the 

Church    .         ...... 

Communion  with  the  Lord 

The  Lord's  Supper 


231 
240 

226 

227 
231 
232 
232 

232 

232 
229 

229 

229 
231 

231 
232 
232 
232 
234 
235 
237 
237 

238 
238 

240 

241 
241 
242 


EIGHT  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 


ERRATA. 

Page  10,  line  16.  Insert  comma  after  "  come." 

"  14,     "    15.  For  "  all  of  "  read  "  of  all." 

«  15,     "      5.  For  "  of  "  read  "  or." 

"  24,     "    14.  For  "  any  that  "  read  "  any  think  that." 

"  24,     "    16.  Omit  "  the  "  before  "  moral." 

«  25,     «    22.  For  "  little  "  read  "  tittle." 

"  26,     "      9.  For  "call  "  read  "called." 

"  37,     "    23.  For  "  of  "  read  "  on  the." 

"  45,     "    33.  For  "  not  dependent"  read  "  nor  dependent." 

"  46,     "    18.  For  "  Convention  "  read  "  Convocation." 

«  72,     "    25.  For  "to"  read  "by." 

"  72,     "    33.  For  "  These  "  read  "  Three." 

"  73,     "    10.  For  "  pregnant  "  read  "  frequent." 

"  83,  note.  For  "  first.     The  "  read  "  first,  the." 

"  85,  line  28.  For  "  barleys  "  read  "  barley." 

"  105,  note.  For  "  Pharoah  "  read  "  Pharaoh." 

"  106,  line    3.  Insert  "  to  "  before  "  its." 

"  118,     "      4.  For  "  cloak  "  read  "  cloud." 

"  150,     "    12.  For  "  imposition  "  read  "  interposition. " 

"  170,     "    24.  For  "  Hahirath  "  read  "  Hahiroth." 

"  185,     "      5.  For  "  it "  read  "  yet." 

"  236,     "    13. 

"  236,     "    1 7.  {-  For  "  Israel  "  read  "  Israel's." 

"  237,     "      5. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Under  superintendence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Fourth  Command- 
ment necessarily  applied  to  the  Lord's  Day  .         .         .231 

Covenant  and  testimony  endure  under  Christian  dispensation  2-10 

Meaning  of  words  "  seventh  day,"  before,  under,  and  after 

the  sabbatic  system 226 

Meaning  of  words  "  not  any  work  "  ;  two  Mosaic  interpreta- 
tions       227 

Meaning  of  suspension  of  bread-winner's  efforts  in  both         .  231 

(1.)  No  trace  of  the  strict  observance  of  the  patriarchal  age  232 


EIGHT  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 


STUDY  I. 

THE  PBCEXOMEXA   OF   THE  DAY. 

"But  Christ  is  all  and  iu  all."  —  Col.  iii.  11. 

What  is  the  first  day  of  the  week  ?  How  is  it  distin- 
guished from  other  days  ?  How  can  the  fundamental 
conceptions  of  it,  which  actually  exist  in  all  minds,  be 
defined  ?  These  are  three  forms  of  one  question.  In 
order  to  obtain  a  correct  answer,  the  limitation  of  the 
question  must  be  carefully  observed.  It  does  not  refer  to 
what  ought  to  be.  It  does  not  touch  upon  doctrine  or 
duty.  It  admits  no  argument  on  morals,  hygiene,  social 
economics,  political  progress,  or  religion.  Neither  does  it 
refer  to  causes.  It  implies  no  investigation  of  historic 
or  any  other  reasons  why.  It  refers  to  the  visible  atti- 
tude of  society,  to  the  habitual  conduct  of  individuals, 
to  the  energy  of  common  ideas  manifested  by  common 
impulses.  Nothing  whatever  in  the  realm  of  nature  marks 
the  day.  Its  phenomena  are  human  altogether.  Men's 
actions  answer  to  their  ideas.  Therefore  the  phenomena 
of  human  conduct  seen  on  a  large  scale  must  answer  to 
the  underlying  ideas  which  on  a  large  scale  dominate  the 
human  mind.  Therefore  the  most  prevalent  ideas,  the 
most  fundamental  conceptions  of  this  day,  must  be  mani- 
fested by  phenomena  of  such  magnitude  as  to  be  appar- 
1 


,^,    /    J^IGIIT^  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

enfc  to  411,  wliatevei'  their  religious  or  non-religious  stand- 
point. In  fine,  the  qrtestion  in  hand  is  one  of  observed 
fact.  The  correctness  of  the  answers  given  may  be 
tested  by  any  one  competent  to  analyze  the  conduct  of 
the  people  at  large,  so  as  to  note  the  particulars  in 
which  it  is  accordant. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  has  three  names.  Sunday  is 
its  legal  name.  The  legitimacy  of  this  name  does  not, 
however,  rest  upon  any  statute.  The  names  of  the  days 
are  not  prescribed  by  law.  The  law  merely  presumes 
their  existence,  and,  by  its  uniform  phraseology,  sanctions 
them.  Sunday  may  therefore  be  called  the  "  proper  " 
English  name  of  this  day.  It  is  known  to  all,  and  it  has 
legal  warrant.  But  the  present  age  pays  little  regard 
to  the  appropriate  meaning  of  proper  names,  and  never 
thinks  of  associating  this  one  with  the  sun.  Christians 
use  it  as  well  as  those  indifferent  or  averse  to  Christian 
faith.  It  is  precisely  like  the  names  of  the  other  six 
days,  wholly  secular,  unknown  to  the  Scriptures,  un- 
tinged  by  any  religious  sentiment. 

The  day  is  also  known  as  the  Sabbath,  but  this  name 
is  by  no  means  so  often  used.  Whether  in  strict  propri- 
ety it  ought  to  be  used  is  debatable.^  But  in  fact  it  is 
extensively  used  and  perfectly  understood.  Being  de- 
rived from  the  Bible,  it  has  evident  religious  associations. 
It  carries  with  it,  now  at  least,  two  suggestions ;  one  of 
duty  to  God,  one  of  intermitted  labor.  Hence  it  is  used 
almost  or  quite  exclusively  by  those  who  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and   of  Christianity,  and 

^  '*  Sabbath  "  is  not  popularly  used  to  distinguish  the  sacred  day 
of  Israelites  from  that  of  Christians.  Whenever  the  Israelite  Sab- 
bath is  intended,  something  in  the  context  is  needed  to  make  that 
appear.  Unless  in  some  way  a  reference  to  Israel  is  manifested,  it 
■will  inevitably  be  understood  that  the  name  Sabbath  is  intended  to 
represent  the  first  day  of  the  week. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  3 

some  interest  in^tbe  controversies  over  the  clay's  employ- 
ments. 

The  Lord's  Day  is  a  third  name,  essentially  Christian. 
It  comes  from  the  New  Testament.  It  is  very  seldom 
used  by  any  who  are  not  believers  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Even  they  do  not  use  it  constantly  or  very 
frequently.  Yet  it  is  well-known  both  to  literature  and 
to  common  speech.  But  being  the  rarest  of  the  three 
names,  its  occurrence  is  usually  emphatic.  The  speaker 
or  writer  is  understood  as  intending  to  imply  some  re- 
lation between  this  day  and  the  claim  of  Christians  for 
the  supremacy  of  their  Lord. 

If  in  any  company  one  should  mention  Sunday,  the 
use  of  that  name  would  afford  no  hint  whatever  of  the 
person's  rehgious  position.  A  devout  believer,  or  a  scof- 
fer, or  an  indifferent,  or  one  as  nearly  as  possible  ignorant 
of  religion,  might  use  it,  each  with  equal  readiness.  But 
not  so  if  one  said  Sabbath.  This  word  would  necessarily 
suggest  that  the  speaker,  whether  a  friend  or  foe  to  Chris- 
tian faith,  was  not  ignorant  of  it,  nor  indifferent  to  it. 
He  would  almost  certainly  have  in  mind  some  thought 
of  a  connection  between  this  day  and  the  belief  in  divine 
revelation  and  divine  authority  over  man.  If,  however, 
one  spoke  of  the  Lord's  Day,  all  would  suppose  that 
he  who  uttered  this  name  was  a  believer.  Indeed  the 
natural  inference  would  be  that  all  were  believers.  For 
even  a  believer  would  not  be  apt  to  use  this  name  ex- 
cept in  addressing  those  of  similar  faith. 

The  coexistence  of  these  three  diverse  names,  and  the 
peculiarity  of  their  use,  corresponds  with  the  coexistence 
and  peculiar  distinctiveness  of  three  classes  who  have  to 
do  with  the  day.  Those  who  use  the  third  name  use 
both  the  others  also.  Those  who  use  the  second  use  also 
the  first,  which  is  used  by  all.  So  the  third  class  of  those 
whose  conduct  in  relation  to  this  day  is  now  to  be  studied 


4  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

is  included  in  the  otlier  two,  and  the  second  in  the  first. 
All  are  unicentric  with  lessening  circles.  The  first  class 
includes  the  whole  community,  whatever  may  be  their 
religious  or  non-religious  character.  All  call  the  day 
Sunday,  whether  they  think  of  it  by  any  other  name  or 
not.  The  second  class  includes  only  those  who  may  very 
broadly  be  called  the  religious  part  of  the  community : 
those  who  in  some  sense  acknowledge  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  Among  these  the  name  Sabbath  is  not  infre- 
quently used,  and  is  sometimes  bandied.  The  third  class 
includes  only  personal  adherents  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
w'ho  alone  are  likely  to  say  the  Lord's  Day.  In  each 
of  these  classes  may  be  noticed  habitual  and  spontaneous 
action  in  relation  to  this  da3^  Their  conduct  presents, 
it  may  be  said,  constant  phenomena,  which  plainly  ex- 
press three  underlying  conceptions  or  ideas,  severally 
dominating  these  three  classes,  and  together  defining  the 
day.  These  three  conceptions  or  ideas  may  be  repre- 
sented by  the  terms  Institution,  Festival,  Observance. 


I. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  is  an  Listitution.^  This 
conception  underlies  the  conduct  of  the  whole  commu- 
nity. For  present  purposes  the  word  may  be  defined  as  a 
centre  or  mode  of  activity,  whose  outward  manifestation 
is  apparent  and  recognizable  ;  whose  permanence  is  in- 
dependent of  local  caprice,  or  of  the  volition  of  any  indi- 

^  An  Institution  is  properly  something  instituted  or  set  in  action 
by  consent  of  human  society  ;  as  distinguished  from  an  arrangement 
of  nature,  and  from  the  act  of  an  individual :  something  having  an 
outward  form  or  modality,  in  some  way  visible,  tangible,  definable; 
as  distinguished  from  an  idea,  and  also  from  a  custom  :  something 
endowed  with  energy  of  its  own,  and  exercising  some  certain  recog- 
nizable influence  ;  as  distinguished  from  a  condition  or  set  of  circum- 
stances, and  from  a  memorial  or  achievement  or  record. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  THE  DAY.  5 

vidual ;  whose  relations  affect  both  the  community  as  a 
wliole  and  its  members  ;  in  brief,  as  a  fact  possessing  the 
three  attributes  of  publicity,  fixedness,  and  influence. 

That  which  is  now  to  be  studied  is  not  an  institution  of 
the  Church  or  of  Christianity,  but  of  organized  society,  as 
it  is  found  to-day  in  our  own  and  other  lands.  To  some 
men  a  certain  day  may  be  more  significant  and  more  im- 
pressive than  to  others.  The  question  answered  by  the 
word  institution  is  this  :  to  all  among  us,  to  each  and 
every  one  of  every  character,  occupation,  or  faith,  what 
is  the  first  day  of  the  week  ?  To  verify  this  answer  ac- 
cording to  the  definition  of  Institution  already  given,  it 
is  asserted  that  all  know  the  day ;  that  all  yield,  in  some 
respects,  to  it ;  and  that  all  feel,  in  some  respects,  its  in- 
fluence. 

Seven  days  are  known  to  the  whole  community  by 
their  names.  The  week,  as  a  recurring  period,  is  also 
known  to  all.  The  common  meaning  of  this  word  is  the 
time  from  the  beginning  of  one  Sunday  to  the  beginning 
of  the  next,  though  it  may  be  figuratively  applied  to  any 
period  composed  of  seven  equal  times.  Sunday  makes 
the  ordinary  week,  not  Monday  or  Thursday  or  any 
other  day.  Saturday  might  also  make  the  week,  but  in 
our  day,  and  with  all  but  a  small  fraction  of  our  popula- 
tion, it  is  as  insignificant  in  this  respect  as  Thursday  or 
Monday.  Whatever  may  be  the  reason  for  counting  time 
by  weeks,  or  for  taking  Sunday  as  the  point  at  which  this 
peculiar  period  always  begins,  the  fact  is  familiar  to  all. 

A  fact  thus  recorded  in  the  vocabulary  of  all  classes 
could  not  be  a  transient  circumstance  or  a  novelty.  It  is 
in  truth  a  legacy  to  us  from  an  indefinite  past.  It  has 
come  to  us  and  it  goes  on  with  us  just  as  regularly  as 
the  months  and  years.  No  individual  can  divert  or  stop 
its  current.  Yet  its  persistence  is  not  absolute.  Unlike 
the  arrangements  of  nature,  any  institution  having  begun 


6  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

by  human  action  may  conceivably  be  ended  by  the  same. 
It  is  therefore  possible  that,  by  oblitei'ation  of  human  re- 
gard, the  week  might  cease  to  be.  But  the  changes  in- 
volved would  be  radical  and  sweeping  in  the  extreme. 
Even  if  it  should  have  ceased,  the  influence  of  history 
and  literature  (not  to  mention  religion)  would  so  strongly 
favor  it,  that  to  reestablish  might  be  easier  than  to  sub- 
vert it. 

Meanwhile  this  first  day  of  the  week  lies  athwart  every 
man's  path,  and,  whatever  he  may  wish  or  intend,  he  is 
compelled  to  adjust  his  steps  to  the  social  fact,  or  to  re- 
move beyond  all  social  intercourse.  All  the  members  of 
the  community  separately'-,  and  the  community  as  an  or- 
ganized whole,  are  somehow  impelled  to  act  so  as  if  it 
were  not  for  the  influence  of  this  institution  they  need 
not  act.  One  takes  a  weekly  vacation,  perhaps  springs 
to  pleasure-seeking.  Another  reaps  a  weekly  harvest  of 
pleasure-seekers'  cash.  Another  engages  in  religious  ex- 
ercises. One  expresses  love  for  a  weekly  token  of  his 
heavenly  Father's  grace.  Another  asserts  hatred  for  this 
weekly  device  of  a  faith  whose  suj)remacy  he  disowns. 
One  considers  the  Sunday  an  occasion  for  pecuniary, 
another  for  physical,  a  third  for  spiritual,  profit.  The 
motives  of  which  men  are  conscious  may  be  as  diverse 
as  their  Sunday  conduct,  but  all  agree  in  assuming  and 
taking  it  for  granted  that  Sunday  is  like  no  other  day. 
It  cannot,  for  example,  be  confounded  with  a  social  oc- 
casion like  New  Year's  Day,  or  with  a  public  one  like 
Independence  Day,  or  with  any  Saint's  day,  or  with  a 
church  day  like  Christmas.  It  is  not,  like  these,  an  an- 
niversary. It  occurs  fifty  times  more  frequently,  and  this 
makes  an  enormous  difference.  Some  thought  of  it  must 
so  often  be  entertained.  Its  approach  must  so  often  be 
taken  into  reckoning  with  ordinary  affairs.  And  every- 
where, some  things  are  done  on  this  day  and  not  on  others, 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  1 

or  are  not  done  on  this  day  as  on  others.  Be  it  custom, 
be  it  law,  be  it  religious  feeling  or  anti-religious  feeling, 
or  be  it  aught  else,  something  specializes  this  day. 

For  everywhere  in  Christendom  the  law  takes  cogni- 
zance of  this  day  as  an  institution  affecting  the  organ- 
ized community.  Not  only  does  the  law  assume  by  its 
phraseology  that  the  institution  exists  and  will  continue, 
but  it  also  requires,  permits,  or  forbids  on  this  day  things 
not  required,  permitted,  or  forbidden  on  other  days.  In 
different  countries  its  provisions,  of  course,  vary.i  But 
■whatever  it  provides,  —  whether  that  courts  may  not 
sit,  whether  that  legislatures  'and  similar  bodies  may 
not  meet,  whether  that  public  offices  must  be  wholly 
or  partly  closed,  whether  that  banks,  exchanges,  or  other 
institutions  acting  under  authority  or  charter  of  law  may 
not  do  their  ordinary  business  with  the  public,  whether 
that  contracts  may  not  be  consummated,  whether  that 
payments  and  executions  may  not  be  enforced,  whether 
that  the  exaction  of  any  kind  of  common  labor  is  for- 
bidden, or  whatever  else  may  be  the  effect  of  the  stat- 
utes, —  all  such  regulations  testify,  that  in  the  eye  of 
the  hiAv,  —  that  is,  of  the  organic  mind  of  the  state,  — 
this  institution  has  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  community 
as  an  organic  whole. 

In  another  way  many  governments  place  themselves 
in  peculiar  relations  to   Sunda^^  since  they  appropriate 

1  In  France,  where  there  is  perhaps  the  least  Sunday  legislation, 
a  law  of  the  First  Empire,  now  in  force,  requires  that  public  offices, 
the  Bourse,  etc.,  shall  be  closed  on  Sundays,  and  that  no  notary  may 
act  officially.  A  note  given  on  Sunday  is  good.  Payment,  however, 
cannot  be  demanded  on  Sunday.  The  law  of  1814  (the  first  Bourbon 
restoration)  which  enjoined  the  closing  of  shops,  and,  during  mass 
hours,  of  restaurants,  and  which  interdicted  common  labor,' — after 
lying  dormant  many  years, —  was  repealed  in  1880.  The  present 
law  applies  also  to  Easter,  Pentecost,  Ascension,  Assumption,  and 
All- Saints'  Day,  and  to  July  14. 


8  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S   DAY. 

it  to  special  state  uses.  Sometimes  by  regal  or  imperial 
ceremonials  ;  sometimes  by  reviews  ;  sometimes  by  open- 
ing reserved  galleries,  parks,  or  museums  ;  sometimes  by 
grand  displays,  as  of  the  fountains  at  Versailles  ;  some- 
times by  holding  elections  or  conscriptions,  —  the  heads 
of  society  show  that  they  find  in  this  day  an  institution 
peculiarly  available  for  official  exhibitions  of  majesty, 
because  peculiarly  related  both  to  the  state  and  its 
citizens. 

It  is  true  that  at  some  places  in  Christendom  (so-called) 
general  trade  seems  to* go  on,  workshops  are  busy,  and 
even  banks  and  exchanges  open  their  doors.  It  may  be 
true  that  a  Bourse  somewhere  may  appoint  Saturday  as 
a  weekly  day  of  closing.  But  it  is  not  true  that  in  any 
such  place  there  is  no  perceptible  difference  between 
Sundays  and  other  days.  It  is  not  true  that  in  Paris, 
Vienna,  Hamburg,  or  Rome,  the  populace  do  not  dis- 
tinguish the  day.  Commercial  reports  are  not  the  same 
as  on  other  days.  The  pomp  of  sovereignty  is  different. 
There  is  a  discrimination  as  to  many  details  of  person 
and  household.  And  there  is  the  unfailing  office  of  wor- 
ship before  the  eyes  of  all.  Whatever  may  be  the  dis- 
position of  individuals,  tlie  whole  community  know  as  a 
fact  that  on  this  day  occurs  the  regular  normal  service. 
And  besides  this,  here  and  there,  before  all  eyes,  even  in 
places  like  those  mentioned,  some  shops  are  closed,  some 
business  is  suspended,  some  toil  is  dropped,  in  order  that 
honor  may  be  paid  to  the  Christian's  Lord. 

But  if  the  Sunday  be  a  holiday,  — if  it  be  a  popular 
recreation,  valued  for  personal  or  social  enjoyment,  —  if 
the  avenues  of  travel  are  regularly  thronged, —  if  the 
places  of  amusement  expect  a  weekly  freshet,  —  all  this 
is  possible  onl}"  because  this  day  is  an  institution,  famil- 
iar, fixed  in  popular  regard,  and  influencing  all  to  distin- 
guish it  from  other  days. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  9 

II. 

The  first  day  of  tlie  week  is  a  festival.  This  word 
may  be  defined  as  an  occasion  for  sociaUty,  privilege, 
and  encouragement.  This  conception  interprets  the  con- 
duct of  that  part  of  the  community  which  may  be  called 
its  religious  class,  comprising  all  who  by  themselves,  or 
by  others,  are  considered  in  any  sense  Christians.  For 
many  practical  purposes  this  class  is  dealt  with  as  a 
whole.  Its  influence  and  votes  and  money,  for  instance, 
are  sought  and  given  as  the  influence,  votes,  and  money 
of  persons  who,  whether  church  members  or  pew-holders, 
or  neither,  and  with  infinite  diversity  or  contrariety  of 
ecclesiastical  prepossession,  avow  their  interest  in  Chris- 
tianity as  the  stay  of  morals.  The  conduct  in  regard  to 
Sunday,  wherein  all  of  this  class  agree,  evinces  the  ideas 
which  rule  them. 

The  most  noticeable  feature  of  the  day,  in  its  general 
religious  aspect,  is  assemblage.  Wherever  any  degree 
of  religious  sentiment  exists  people  are  wont  to  gather. 
Their  gatherings,  moreover,  much  more  than  on  other 
occasions,  are  apt  to  contain  whole  families.  Father, 
mother,  and  children  here,  as  seldom  elsewhere  in  public, 
are  seen  together.  Seldom,  indeed,  elsewhere  are  all 
ages,  from  the  most  venerable  to  the  youngest,  so  inter- 
spersed in  open  concourse.  Rarely,  also,  does  any  other 
company  resemble  an  ordinary  Sunday  congregation  in 
the  variety  of  its  constituents.  Certain  sorts  of  persons 
are,  indeed,  conspicuously  absent.  But  such  sorts  do  not 
command  the  respect  of  the  public  or  of  themselves. 
Every  station,  every  occupation,  every  social  or  political 
or  industrial  interest,  which  is  undeniably  reputable,  is 
here  usually  represented.  And  whatever  portion  of  the 
better  elements  of  society  may  attend,  the  worst  elements 
plainly  eliminate  themselves. 


10         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

But  apart  from  tlie  clay's  public  assemblies,  its  inher- 
ent sociality  is  peculiarly  distinctive.  On  no  other  day 
do  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  and  all  of 
the  household,  see  so  much  of  each  otlier  ;  or  do  neigh- 
bors remain  through  its  hours  so  near  each  other ;  or  do 
friends  whose  very  profoundest  convictions  and  hopes  are 
alike  act  so  evidently  in  sympathy  therein  with  each 
other.  Solitariness  and  isolation  are  out  of  harmony  with 
the  general  aspect  of  the  day.  So  far  as  it  has  any  de- 
gree of  religious  regard,  it  is  the  most  potent  influence 
known  for  promoting  the  mutual  acquaintance  of  all 
classes,  from  highest  to  humblest,  from  oldest  to  young- 
est, from  the  close  circle  of  home  to  the  widest  of  human 
sympathy,  only  excluding  such  as  by  totally  excluding 
themselves  from  assemblages  to  which  some  from  all 
other  classes  come  confess  their  class  disrepute. 

The  opportunity  for  its  characteristic  sociality  is  secured 
by  the  day's  privilege,  or  intermission  of  ordinary  obliga- 
tions and  restrictions.  The  privilege  is  partly  maintained 
by  law,  but  very  largely  by  custom.  The  law  provides 
for  those  who  would  enjoy  the  day  a  certain  amount  of 
protection  from  exaction,  and  even  from  the  pressure  of 
comjietition.  No  man  can  legally  compel  another  to  per- 
form common  labor,  to  transact  any  kind  of  ordinary  busi- 
ness, or  to  discharge  the  obligation  of  any  contract.  No 
man  can  legally  gain  any  advantage  over  another  by  pur- 
suing his  usual  avocations  while  the  other  pauses.  Cus- 
tom among  the  religious  class,  and  wherever  religious 
influence  is  strong,  maintains  the  law  in  active  exercise ; 
sometimes,  however,  extending  and  sometimes  contract- 
ing its  scope.  The  necessities  and  exigencies  of  the  com- 
munity, which  are  distinctly  beyond  the  intent  of  the 
law,  are  measured  chiefly  by  local  custom.  Even  the 
service  required  by  these  supposed  necessities  and  exigen- 
cies is,  in  theory,  rendered  out  of  a  benevolent  regard  for 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE   DAY.  11 

public  wants,  and,  in  practice,  is  almost  wholly  voluntary. 
The  employ<^s  of  city  street  railways,  and  many  others, 
are  usually  kept,  on  the  plea  of  public  convenience,  with- 
out a  Sunday  respite  ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  pecun- 
iary loss  or  disadvantage  ever  falls  upon  any  of  them  who, 
on  religious  grounds,  abstain  from  work  on  that  day. 

For  the  religious  class  in  the  largest  sense,  the  "  must" 
of  business  is  on  this  day  transformed  into  the  "may" 
of  enjoyment.  Sociality  is  free.  If  there  be  an  inward 
impulse  or  conviction  of  duty,  there  is  no  tangible  con- 
straint, even  to  church-going.  The  practice  has  no  direct 
effect  on  material  interests.  Neither  profit  nor  loss  of 
that  kind  hinges  on  it.  Most  of  the  commingling  of 
other  days  is  stimulated  by  desire  for  a  livelihood,  or  for 
social  advantage.  But  the  encounters  of  this  day  have 
no  relation  to  bread-winning  or  to  local  aspirations.  On 
other  days  the  atmosphere  is  as  full  of  urgenc}'^  as  on  this 
day  of  leisure  and  calm.  The  day  does  not  bring  wor- 
ries, but  rather  affords  a  breathing  space  from  their 
harassing  pursuit.  Whatever  may  be  the  history  or  my- 
thology of  a  Puritan  Sabbath,  neither  compulsion  nor 
harshness  is  a  featui-e  of  the  existing  institution.  It  is 
resonant  with  invitation,  it  is  affluent  with  ease.  The 
eagerness  of  other  days  is  quieted.  Relief  from  fatigue 
and  exertion  is  afforded.  Absolute  cessation  of  all  ordi- 
nary emplo^nnents  would  imply  a  constraint  rather  than 
a  privilege,  and,  in  fact,  does  not  anywhere  exist.  The 
fact  which  does  exist  is  a  conviction  that  ordinary  pur- 
suits and  efforts  may  be  suspended  on  this  day  without 
detriment.  Whether  as  the  effect  of  law,  or  of  custom, 
or  of  religious  sentiment,  evidently  the  day  is  regarded 
as  privileged. 

The  natural  result  of  social  intercourse  enjoyed  under 
such  privilege,  by  persons  of  good  morals,  would  be  re- 
freshment, recuperation,  renewed  energy  at  the  resump- 


12         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

tion  of  regular  occupations.  But  the  day  brings  a  more 
positive  experience.  Among  those  who  in  the  widest 
sense  may  be  called  Christian,  it  paints  before  every  eye, 
it  chants  in  every  ear,  it  suggests  to  every  heart,  in  an- 
swer to  its  deepest  longing,  remedy  for  the  sum  of  all 
curses,  deliverance  from  the  sum  of  all  pains,  hope  trium- 
phant, illimitable,  life  beyond  inevitable  death.  In  other 
festivals,  contemplation  of  the  darker  side  of  life  is  usu- 
ally avoided.  Their  enjoyment  consists  very  much  in 
such  avoidance.  Contact  with  sorrow,  vice,  and  igno- 
rance tarnishes  the  gloss  of  their  festivity,  and  tends  to 
destroy  their  coherence.  But  on  Sundays,  sorrow,  vice, 
and  ignorance  are  dealt  with  in  such  a  ssniy  that  the  joy 
and  profit  of  the  day  are  not  marred,  but  increased.  In- 
stead of  forgetting,  for  the  time,  life's  evils,  the  general 
Christian  public,  w^io  as  much  as  any  class  must  and  do 
meet  them,  expect  to  find,  on  this  day,  influences  that 
help  toward  patience,  toward  righteousness,  toward  an 
understanding  of  themselves,  their  surroundings,  and. 
their  goal.  Pride  is  said  to  be  softened,  sympathy  to  be 
evoked,  resolution  to  be  strengthened.  Both  intellect 
and  emotion  are  exercised.  The  attention  is  directed 
toward  ultimate  truth,  or  the  search  for  it.  The  result 
is  a  certain  harmonious  uplifting  of  the  whole  personal- 
ity, a  certain  access  of  clear-sighted,  high-hearted  encour- 
agement. 

So  far,  then,  as  this  institution  practically  affects  the 
relifjious  class,  it  not  only  has  the  character  of  a  festival, 
but  is  also  peculiarly  exempt  from  incongruities.  Other 
festivals  are  more  or  less  defective.  Sometimes  their  fel- 
lowship is  not  altogether  natural  or  harmonious.  Gen- 
erally they  are  in  danger  of  collapse  if  certain  elements 
liable  to  appear  are  not  carefully  prevented.  Frequently 
their  cost  is  a  sensible  drain  on  purse,  or  thought,  or  vigor. 
Too  often  their  anticipated  profit  proves  unsatisfactory. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  13 

Amusement,  as  such,  certainly  lias  a  real  value,  but  it 
does  not  endow  with  nerve  for  life's  struggles.  A  share 
in  viewing  triumphs  of  genius  or  special  displays  of  splen- 
dor or  power  may  thrill  and  animate,  but  there  is  usually 
a  bill  directly  or  indirectly  to  be  paid  afterward,  and  if 
slowly,  then  the  more  heavily.  Mutual  endeavor,  whether 
in  industrial  pursuits,  or  in  behalf  of  public  interests,  or 
in  the  solemn  ordeal  of  war,  weaves  strong  and  lasting 
ties,  whose  occasional  renewal  is  full  of  pleasure.  But 
even  these  ties  are  not  like  those  of  nature  or  like  those 
created  by  a  common  religious  feeling.  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  they  would  pall  and  weary  and  become  at 
last  repulsive,  if  celebrated  on  a  purely  social  basis  every 
week.  The  sociality  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  on  the 
contrary,  is  developed  naturally,  out  of  the  unities  of 
blood  and  neighborhood  and  fundamental  correspondence 
of  soul.  Its  privilege  is  not  hampered  by  the  necessity 
of  earning,  or  the  contingency  of  losing,  or  the  enticement 
of  social  ambition.  Its  encouragement  not  only  refreshes 
the  vigorous  and  experienced,  but  also  animates  sufferers, 
stimulates  the  feeble,  emboldens  the  apprehensive,  directs 
the  uncertain,  helps  to  meet  every  contingency  of  the 
present  mixed  life,  and  fortifies  tenants  of  dissoluble  bod- 
ies for  their  entrance  into  the  incorporeal  state.  What 
institution  known  to  human  experience  so  perfectly  ex- 
emplifies an  ideal  festival  ? 

III. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  is  an  observance.  By 
this  word  is  meant  (in  this  paper)  an  occasion  observed 
in  order  to  express  obligation.  This  conception  of  the 
day  explains  that  peculiar  conduct  wherein  those  coin- 
cide who  profess  themselves  adherents,  not  merely  to 
Christianity  in  some  general  form,  but  personally,  to  the 


14         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Christ  whom  the}^  call  their  Lord.  The  idea  is  embodied 
in  the  name  Lord's  Day,  which  they  sometimes  use.  This 
name  and  conception  belong  to  them  alone.  But  the 
phenomena  or  manifest  facts  of  their  constant  and  unan- 
imous action  are  apparent  to  all.  Indeed,  they  present 
perhaps  the  most  noticeable  and  the  most  special  char- 
acteristic of  the  day. 

The  general  facts  of  their  conduct  may  be  thus  stated. 
Personal  adherents  to  the  Lord,  believers,  as  they  are 
wont  to  call  themselves,  whatever  their  ecclesiastical  ties, 
and  whatever  their  views  about  other  uses  of  the  day, 
agree  as  to  public  worship  on  the  Lord's  Day.  In  such 
worship,  despite  all  varieties  of  doctrine  or  ritual,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  uniformly  honored  and  invoked  as 
the  Divine  Head  and  Lord  of  the  Church  and  all  of  her 
members.  To  Him  as  Head  and  Lord  profession  is  al- 
ways made  of  entire  and  absolute  subjection  and  depen- 
dence, of  complete  identification  in  purpose  and  hope. 
There  is  no  limit  to  the  gratitude,  devotion,  aspiration, 
and  confidence  expressed. 

The  essential  element  in  this  fact  may  be  brought  into 
distinctness  by  a  comparison  of  the  Lord's  Day  with  cer- 
tain other  days,  whose  observance  also  expresses  some  de- 
gree of  obligation.  These  may  be  grouped  in  two  classes. 
One  class  may  be  called  civic  or  national  observances,  be- 
cause they  are  celebrated  by  citizens  in  view  of  their 
rights,  privileges,  and  duties  as  such,  and  in  relation  to 
some  event  which  serves  as  a  focus  for  all  lines  of  national 
or  political  thought.  In  this  class  are  birthdays  or  coro- 
nation days  of  reigning  sovereigns,  our  own  Independence 
Day,  and  the  like.  In  celebrating  such  occasions,  citizens 
acknowledge  an  obligation  to  their  government  and  to 
the  person  or  persons  in  whom  it  is  vested.  They  also 
bring  to  mind  the  potency  and  honor  of  the  civic  body  of 
which  they  are  members,  and  through  which  they,  as  its 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  15 

members,  are  united  to  its  chief.  Moreover,  tliey  profess 
that  both  obligation  and  membership  are  willingly  and 
gladly  experienced,  with  no  limitation  to  their  extent  and 
supremacy.  Most  of  all,  very  often  they  emphasize  a 
circumstance  which,  without  their  own  ability  of  volition, 
has  made  them  citizens,  and  clothed  them  not  only  with 
the  citizen's  legal  relations,  but  with  the  citizen's  senti- 
ment, patriotism.  It  is  their  birthright.  The  substan- 
tial fact  implied  by  all  these  actions  is  loyalty. 

The  other  class  of  observances  may  be  described  as 
days  of  special  appeal.  Characteristically  they  are  either 
petitions  or  thanks  for  benefits.  Such  are  our  Thanks- 
giving Day,  certain  public  fast  days,  most  saints'  days, 
and  the  like.  These  occasions  usually  commemorate 
no  particular  event,  or  if  any,  then  one  regarded  as  a 
good  whose  enjoyment  may  be  prolonged,  or  as  an  evil 
whose  harmfulness  may  be  abated.  Personal  advantage, 
whether  obtained  or  desired,  inspires  the  celebration. 
Sometimes  the  favor  of  the  person  honored  or  worshiped 
is  invoked.  Sometimes  his  general  benevolence  is  ac- 
knowledged. Sometimes  it  is  felt  that  his  influence  has 
been  specifically  useful  during  a  season  past.  Gratitude  is 
honorable.  Self  interest  is  not  necessarily  ignoble.  These 
observances,  whether  inspired  by  pure  gratitude,  by  self- 
interest,  or  by  mixed  motives,  may  be  proper  and  useful, 
but  it  will  not  be  denied  that  in  dignity  and  influence 
they  are  lower  than  the  others.  At  any  rate,  they  are 
contingent.  They  are  celebrated  because  from  time  to 
time  circumstances  warrant  them.  The  others  depend 
on  permanent  facts.  Loyalty  rests  on  the  citizen's  birth 
relation  to  his  native  land. 

The  Lord's  Day  evidently  corresponds  with  the  first  of 
these  classes  rather  than  the  second.  It  is  not  a  day  spe- 
cially designated  as  a  thanksgiving  to  the  Almighty  for 
the  benefits  of  the  six  days  past ;  nor  a  day  for  specially 


16         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

propitiating  his  displeasure  and  invoking  his  good-will. 
So  far  as  these  things  are  proper  on  Sunday,  they  are 
proper  on  every  other  day.  In  no  respect  are  they  empha- 
sized by  the  return  itself  of  the  day.  No  class  or  com- 
munity of  Christians  is  known  to  have  devoted  Sunday 
to  the  acknowledgment  or  solicitation  of  direct  advan- 
tages from  God's  providence.  Observance  of  this  da}'  is 
nowhere  associated  in  men's  minds  with  good  harvests, 
prosperous  voyages,  successful  industrial  enterprise,  or 
victorious  campaigns,  past  or  future.  Thanks  may  be 
given  for  such  things  or  their  bestowment  asked  on  this 
day  or  on  any  other.  Nowhere  is  it  the  peculiar  and 
characteristic  feature  of  the  day's  exercises  to  deal  with 
them.  Any  reference  to  them  has  a  subordinate  place 
unless  in  some  emergency. 

On  the  other  hand,  like  citizens  in  a  national  or  civic 
celebration.  Christian  believers,  on  the  Lord's  Day,  in 
their  assemblies,  both  acknowledge  before  each  other 
their  individual  obligation  to  the  Person  who  is  the  su- 
preme Head  of  their  body,  and  magnify  the  interests  of 
that  body,  which  in  its  full  extent  they  call  his  king- 
dom. By  all  the  circumstances  of  their  assembl}',  and 
by  all  the  expressions  of  thought  and  feeling  associated 
with  it,  testimony  is  given  that  the  obligation  is  acknowl- 
edged by  all,  voluntarily,  heartily,  gladly,  and  without 
reserve  or  limit.  Yet  it  is  equally  avowed  that  their 
bond  to  their  Lord  and  to  his  kingdom  is  a  permanent 
one,  not  maintained  by  their  volition  merely,  but  fas- 
tened in  some  way  upon  their  natures.  As  citizens  of 
political  states  are  clothed  with  legal  relations  and  en- 
dued with  civic  feeling  through  the  circumstances  of  their 
birth,  so  citizens  of  the  Lord's  kingdom  say  that  they 
are  clothed  with  moral  (legal  and  something  beside  legal) 
relations  and  inspired  with  Christian  (something  more 
than  civic)  loyalty  through  what  they  call  their  new 
birth. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  17 

Moreover,  as  these  civic  celebrations  commemorate 
some  event  of  great  importance  to  the  state  or  to  its 
chief,  and  especially  an  event  which  has  inaugnratecl 
some  grand  civil  epoch,  or  the  life  or  reign  of  tlie  ruler, 
so  the  Lord's  Day  commemorates  an  event  which  is  the 
accredited  inauguration,  both  of  an  epoch  in  the  Chris- 
tian commonwealth's  history  and  of  the  super-mortal  life 
and  reign  of  its  Lord.  He  who  had  been  known  pre- 
viously as  a  man,  and  one  of  the  humblest  rank,  on  this 
day,  as  reported,  assumed  a  state  independent  of  any 
earthly  circumstance,  and  above  any  known  condition  of 
humanity,  announcing  for  Himself  his  accession  to  "  all 
power  in  heaven  and  in  earth,"  and  manifested  or  "  de- 
clared to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power."  According 
to  Christian  records,  some  glimpses  only  of  a  higher 
nature  had  been  vaguely  noticed  hitherto  by  a  very  few, 
but  on  this  day,  through  the  whole  that  had  been  known 
of  Him  to  human  perception,  burst  and  shone  the  splen- 
dor of  eternal  living  light.  According  to  Christian  hope 
and  faith,  an  inconceivably  glorious  reorganization  of 
human  society  under  his  supremacy,  to  be  constituted  of 
those  who,  like  Him,  after  death  shall  have  resumed  cor- 
poreal life  free  from  all  known  corporeal  contingencies,  is 
now  preparing,  by  the  development  of  that  uniting,  con- 
trolling, inspiring  principle,  the  vital  force  of  his  king- 
dom, loyalty. 

Loyalty  is  on  different  sides  an  obligation,  a  disposi- 
tion, and  an  emotion.  Its  definition  in  each  of  these 
aspects  so  far  defines  the  actual  observance  of  the  Lord's 
Day  b}'-  loyal  believers,  as  their  conduct  and  practice  is 
manifest  to  all. 

A.  The  obligation  of  loyalty  may  be  defined  in  respect 
of  the  persons  whom  it  unites,  as  the  duty  of  subordina- 
tion.    In  a  strict  sense  it  does  not  exist  between  equals. 

It  is  the  proper  sentiment  of  one  who  owes  toward  the 
2 


18         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LOnD'S  DAY. 

person  entitled  to  receive,  of  one  subject  to  autbority 
toward  the  person  vested  with  authorit}^,  of  the  indi- 
vidual toward  the  body  of  which  he  is  a  member,  of 
the  citizen  toward  his  government.  When  the  word  is 
tropically  used  concerning  equals,  it  implies  that  the 
loyal  person  feels  bound  to  subordinate  personal  interests 
to  the  interests  of  another.  Thus  either  a  husband  or 
wife  is  said  to  be  loyal  to  the  other,  when  no  personal 
indulgence,  no  desire  of  separate  advantage,  no  default 
of  effort  and  cai'e,  is  suffered  to  mar  the  honor  and  com- 
fort and  success  of  the  other.  Loyalty  and  self-sacrifice, 
if  not  synonymous,  are  certainly  homogeneous  terms. 
Loyalty  and  self-seeking  are  certainly  incongruous.  L03'- 
alty  essentially  exalts  and  prefers  another,  and  subordi- 
nates self  to  that  other's  benefit. 

The  obligation,  in  respect  of  its  extent,  must  be  de- 
fined as  the  duty  of  unlimited  subordination.  If  there 
be  a  point  in  the  line  of  sacrifice  (wrong-doing  of  course 
out  of  question)  beyond  which  loyalty  will  not  go,  it  is 
not  loyalty.  If  there  be  a  point  of  time  at  which  it 
expects  to  cease,  it  is  not  loyalty.  A  mercenary  soldier 
hired  by  a  foreigner  may  be  loyal,  in  the  tropical  sense, 
to  his  contract.  But  can  his  service  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  man  who  offers  his  own  blood  for  his  own 
father-land  ?  In  the  case  of  husband  or  wife  or  friend, 
how  can  that  be  called  loyalty  which  contemplates  a  de- 
nial of  wedlock  or  friendship  ?  Loyalty  may  be  abused 
and  destroyed  by  the  person  toward  whom  it  has  been 
entertained.  A  man  ready  to  die  for  his  king  might  be 
compelled  by  honor  and  duty  to  foi'sake  a  recreant  and 
unworthy  king.  He  might  still  be  loyal  to  some  One 
higher.  But  the  moment  he  intended  desertion,  loyalty 
to  that  king  would  be  dead.  For  loyalty  may  die,  some- 
times, without  dishonor,  but  it  cannot  be  limited  while 
living.      Loyal  meuj  have   abandoned    property,  turned 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  19 

away  from  home,  sacrificed  every  material  comfort, 
bealtb,  limb,  and  life,  at  their  country's  call,  and  loyal 
men,  if  need  be,  will  do  the  same  again.  For  loyalty 
gives  up  all,  measuring  only  the  exigency  which  calls 
upon  it. 

B.  The  disposition  or  quality  of  loyalty  may  be  de- 
fined by  contrast  to  its  opposite,  disloyalty.  The  word 
"traitor"  seems  to  be  charged  with  the  detestation  of 
mankind.  The  obloquy  of  it  besmears  even  the  man's 
good  traits  and  meritorious  actions.  Benedict  Arnold 
did  some  effective  service  for  his  country,  and  endured 
hardship  therein,  but  his  subsequent  treason  blackened 
the  whole  record  of  his  life.  The  lack  of  loyalty  is  dis- 
honorable. The  reverse  of  loyalty  is  detestable.  There- 
fore loyalty  itself  must  be  counted  of  the  highest  worth 
and  honor.  There  is  an  evident  reason  for  this  high 
estimation.  The  traitor  offends  not  against  a  single  per- 
son, or  a  few  only,  but  against  eveiy  one.  Whether 
by  his  disloyal  inaction  or  by  his  disloyal  activity,  he 
so  far  imperils  all,  the  persons  of  his  countrymen,  all 
their  property,  and  all  that  they  hold  precious.  If  a 
crime  against  one  person,  though  threatening  only  mod- 
erate injury,  deserves  punishment  by  the  community, 
what  is  the  desert  of  a  crime  threatening  the  greatest 
loss  and  'suffering  against  every  member  of  that  com- 
munity ?  For  disloyalty  aids  the  foe  to  military  con- 
quest. Full  conquest  involves  absolute  subjection  to  the 
will  of  the  conqueror,  which  is  slavery.  And  although 
the  spirit  of  the  age  will  not  allow  the  logic  of  war  to 
be  carried  to  its  conclusion,  the  brand  remains  on  the 
traitor. 

It  is,  therefore,  presumed  of  every  citizen  that  he  is 
loyal.  It  is  also  presumed  that  his  loyalty  has  existed  as 
long  as  his  life.  For  the  disposition  of  loyalty  relates  to 
all  that  has  enveloped  the  citizen  from  his  birth,  summed 


20         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

up  in  native  land  and  native  language.  Land  and  tongue, 
though  not  himself,  are  yet  inseparable  from  himself. 
His  relation  to  them  is  like  the  ties  of  blood,  —  invol- 
untary, unchangeable.  As  the  child  grows,  the  associa- 
tions and  interests  of  land  and  language  grow  x\y>o\\  him, 
as  plumage  on  a  bird.  Thus  the  citizen  wears  the  dis- 
position of  loyalty  without  thinking  of  getting  or  keep- 
ing it.  Though  he  wears  it,  it  is  not  a  garment.  It 
cannot  be  put  off  and  on  like  a  soldier's  uniform.  It 
cannot  be  manufactured  by  machinery,  reasoning,  or  wit. 
It  cannot  be  bought  or  sold.  It  cannot  be  evolved  by 
stress  of  will.  It  cannot  result  from  an  accident.  Obli- 
gation will  not  produce  it.  The  disposition  is  indepen- 
dent of  the  duty.  It  sometimes  outlives  the  dut}'.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  honest  and  lawful  transfer  of  alle- 
giance. But  the  loyalty  of  the  adopted  citizen  cannot  be 
precisely  like  the  loyalty  of  the  home-born.  The  immi- 
grant cannot  take  out  of  his  heart  a  tenderness  for  his 
childhood's  home  stronger  and  sweeter  at  some  times,  if 
not  at  all  times,  than  his  devotion  to  the  stranger  land. 
Certainly  we  in  America  have  evidence  enough  that  our 
adopted  citizens,  however  honestly  and  zealously  atten- 
tive to  civic  obligations,  do,  in  fact,  preserve  for  the 
citizenship  they  have  resigned  a  sj^'mpathy  so  strong  that 
it  is  frequently  incongruous  with  their  duty  to  this  land, 
sometimes  quite  repugnant  thereto.  Caelum  non  animam 
mutant  qui  tratis  mare  currunt. 

C.  The  emotion  of  loyalty  may  be  defined  by  that 
which  rouses  it  into  activity,  and  by  the  end  to  which  its 
energy  is  directed.  It  is  the  emotion  kindling  in  the 
contemplation  of  idealized  and  personified  citizenship, 
and  impelling  to  the  support  and  honor  of  that  by  which 
and  in  whom  citizenship  is  so  idealized  and  personified. 
It  is  a  pleasurable  emotion,  attended  by  pride  and  satis- 
faction, even  when  moving  to  sacrifice.     Citizenship  (not 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  THE   DAY.  21 

loyalty)  is  a  garment  which  may  be  put  on  and  off.  It 
answers  to  the  disposition  in  being  colored  also  by  all  the 
fellowship  of  language  and  land.  It  is  as  if  all  the  glory 
of  this  fellowship  rested  on  the  citizen,  and  were  fastened 
over  his  heart  by  the  jewel  of  national  authority.  In 
contemplation  of  his  fellowship  in  the  father-land,  and 
of  the  dignity,  worth,  and  beauty  of  the  sovereign  unity 
which  clasps  together  that  fellowship  around  him,  the 
citizen's  emotion  rises.  It  swells  with  the  proud  realiza- 
tion that  this  fellowship  and  sovereignty  belong  to  him, 
befit  him,  and  are  his  by  birthright  before  the  world.  It 
culminates  in  bowing,  with  all  its  array,  as  a  bride  to 
her  husband,  before  the  sovereignty  in  which  citizenship 
centres,  by  which  the  nation  is  organically  constituted, 
while  it  expresses  its  identification  with  that  will  which 
represents  the  nation's  will. 

Emotion  is  not  the  product  of  a  sense  of  duty,  and  is 
not  to  be  confused  with  habit  or  disposition.  A  disposi- 
tion or  quality  may  exist  and  yet  be  dormant  and  un- 
noticeable.  Emotion  is  in  its  nature  transient,  conscious, 
urgent.  It  lives  by  an  impulse.  It  lives  in  the  region 
of  conscious  activity.  It  lives  as  a  spark  struck  from 
the  grain  of  disposition  by  the  impact  of  such  an  occa- 
sign  as  fixes  the  attention  on  the  theme  of  citizenship. 
Such  occasions  may  be  emergencies  or  celebrations.  But 
emergencies  may  not  occur  once  in  a  lifetime,  while  no 
nation  lives  without  national  celebrations.  For  without 
recurring  celebrations  the  emotion  of  loyalty  might 
seldom,  if  ever,  be  experienced  by  the  mass  of  citizens. 
And  without  the  quickening  received  from  time  to  time 
through  aroused  emotion,  both  the  sense  of  obligation 
and  the  disposition  to  loyalty  might  easily  shrivel  and 
fade.  "  The  day  we  celebrate,"  is  the  occasion  that  stirs 
assembled  loyal  hearts,  and  stimulates  loyal  profession, 
and  strengthens  united  loyal  hands  for  faithful  duty  in 
emergencies,  come  as  they  may. 


22         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

In  peaceful  times,  indeed,  it  usually  happens  that, 
while  the  underlying  principles  of  loyalty  may  be  re- 
ferred to  at  civic  celebrations  (and  never  impugned),  yet 
attention  is  directed,  naturally,  to  thoughts  that  inspire 
complacency  and  pleasure  rather  than  to  uncalled-for 
suggestion  of  stringent  self-sacrifice  or  of  indomitable 
struggle.  The  time  does  not  warrant  these.  The  Church, 
however,  is  always  militant.  Her  avowed  purpose  is 
supremacy  over  all  human  affairs  which  have  any  relation 
to  morals.  She  feels  the  brunt,  moreover,  of  incessant 
attacks.  But  while  she  resists,  sometimes  sorely  suffer- 
ing, sometimes  almost  cowed,  or  reduced  to  languid  in- 
ertness here  and  there,  her  constant  endeavor,  at  home 
and  abroad,  and  wherever  men  dwell,  is  to  make  all  sub- 
ject to  her  Lord. 

Therefore  her  assemblies,  week  by  week,  are  always 
stirred  by  stud}^  of  all  the  terms  and  all  the  phases  of 
loyal  duty,  loyal  character,  and  loyal  impulse.  Her 
members  are  made  familiar  with  all  the  ends  of  their 
gatherings,  so  that  their  conduct  in  continuing  to  assem- 
ble is,  beyond  question,  intelligent  and  sincere.  They 
acknowledge  the  obligation  of  limitless  subordination  to 
their  Lord, — of  giving  up  to  Him  anything,  and,  if 
He  require  it,  everything,  —  and  of  devotion  to  endless 
ages.  They  evince  the  loyal  disposition,  by  the  value 
they  attribute  to  what  they  call  their  new  birth  or  regen- 
eration as  the  fundamental  warrant  for  a  share  in  their 
fellowship,  —  by  their  sympathy  with  all  who  use  their 
language  of  prayer,  and  who  count  upon  a  perpetual 
home  in  a  land  of  which  their  Lord  is  undisputed 
sovereign,  —  and  by  their  treatment  of  apostasy,  as 
shown  in  branding  a  member  who  formally  denies  or 
dishonors  their  Lord,  with  the  punishment  of  utter  dis- 
fellowship.  The  day  which  assembles  them,  which  re- 
vives the  picture  of  their  Lord's  triumph  over  death,  and 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  23 

wliicli  celebrates  with  that  their  buoyant  confidence  in 
their  own  personal  resurrection,  kindles  thus  a  glowing 
spark  of  living  feeling.  In  its  warmth  and  light  they 
contemplate  the  tie  that  holds  them  to  each  other  and  to 
their  Head.  They  realize  each  his  own  personal  interest 
in  all  that  concerns  the  Church,  and  in  all  the  words  and 
works  and  wishes  of  their  Lord.  With  free,  hearty  im- 
pulse they  bow  together  before  Him,  in  whom  their 
union  is  constituted,  and  profess  their  identification 
with  his  supreme  authority  and  will. 

In  these  facts  there  is  a  sufficient  (though  not  the 
only)  explanation  for  the  maintenance  of  public  worship. 
Like  every  other  community.  Christians  might  meet  oc- 
casionally for  business,  if  there  were  no  public  worship. 
Publicity  is  not  an  essential  element  of  Christian  wor- 
ship. They  hold  it  as  their  Lord's  teaching,  that  worship 
is  essentially  the  most  private  of  all  action,  —  the  action 
of  the  secret  spirit  within,  —  and  most  appropriate  to  a 
closet  in  solitude,  unknown  to  the  thoughts  or  eyes  of 
any  except  the  superhuman.  Incessant  display  of  devo- 
tion repels  Christian  sensibilities.  Patriotism,  likewise, 
cannot  afford  to  go  daily  shouting  through  the  streets 
and  swarming  into  forensic  halls.  Ordinarily  loyalty 
may  be  taken  for  granted.  It  voices  its  avowals  only 
when  a  celebration  or  an  emergency  rouses  its  emotion. 

No  private  citizen  chooses  his  own  occasion  for  this. 
To  repudiate  the  day  of  public  celebration,  and  use  an- 
other day,  is  as  plain  a  disregard  of  loyalty  as  repudi- 
ation of  all  celebration.  And  he  who  denies  his  land  de- 
nies its  lord  or  its  government.  Who  repudiates  his 
fellow-citizens,  repudiates  citizenship.  This  is  true  also 
regarding  Christians,  notwithstanding  diversities  of  opin- 
ion among  sincere  believers.  Some  indeed  insist  upon 
varying  a  few  hours  from  the  time  adopted  by  the  major- 
ity.    Some  deny  the  relevancy  of  the  fourth  command- 


24        EIGHT  STUDIES  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

ment.  Some  refuse  to  admit  even  apostolic  authority  for 
the  institution.  Some  hold  it  a  matter  of  public  conven- 
ience or  traditional  preference,  apart  from  dut}'.  But 
whether  it  be  of  human  or  divine  origination,  —  whether 
established  by  an  emperor  or  preserved  by  tradition,  — 
whether  resting  on  ecclesiastical  authority  or  on  the  spon- 
taneous choice  and  impulse  of  the  faithful,  —  or  whether 
indicated  by  the  risen  Loi'd,  and  under  the  oversight  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  established  as  the  successor  and  develop- 
ment of  the  older  Sabbath,  —  it  exists,  distinct  and  well- 
known  ;  and  is  for  all  believers  the  one  Lord's  Day  on 
which  all  approve  and  desire  public  worship  for  the  ex- 
pression of  loyalty  to  Him,  If  some  believers  do  not 
think  it  obligatory  to  go  to  church,  do  any  that  church- 
going  on  this  day  ought  to  cease  ?  If  some  base  the  duty 
of  church-going  on  the  moral  or  other  expediency,  do 
any  question  the  propriety  of  the  act?  Christian  litera- 
ture abounds  in  appreciation  of  inner  spiritual  life  and 
private  communion  with  God,  but  neither  in  their  own 
meaning,  nor  in  the  sum  of  their  influence,  do  these  ut- 
terances disparage  believers'  communion  in  worship,  or 
the  public  ascription  of  united  homage  to  their  Lord. 

Suppose  it  were  proposed  that  public  Christian  worship 
should  hereafter  be  attended,  not  every  week,  but  once 
in  a  month  or  quarter  or  year  ;  not  from  any  necessity, 
as  sometimes  where  people  are  few  and  scattered,  but  for 
the  purpose  of  freeing  so  many  days  from  that  engage- 
ment !  The  proposal  would  certainly  be  a  pain  and  an 
offense  to  the  whole  body  of  believers.  The  dullness  of 
religious  services,  and  the  tediousness  of  sermons,  are 
matters  of  not  infrequent  gibing,  but  the  gibes  seldom 
come  from  the  devout.  There  may  be  more  or  less  dull- 
ness and  tedium.  Whether  there  be  or  no.  Christian  be- 
lievers by  maintaining  their  weekly  assemblies,  whatever 
the  aesthetic  or  literary  character  of  the  exercises,  prove 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  25 

their  abiding  interest  in  the  object  for  which  these  as- 
semblies meet. 

It  is  sometimes  asserted  that  attendance  on  public  wor- 
ship has  diminished  and  is  still  diminishing,  if  not  abso- 
lutely at  least  in  j^roportion  to  the  growth  of  population. 
So  much  interest  has  been  taken  in  this  matter,  that  great 
journals  have  several  times  taken  a  census  of  the  congre- 
gations in  various  cities,  and  usually  with  fair  complete- 
ness and  accuracy.  If  the  practice  is  continued,  a  com- 
parison of  many  reports,  taken  in  different  places  and  at 
successive  intervals  in  each  place,  will  at  length  furnish 
much  important  information.  But  so  far  as  relates  to  the 
interest  of  church  members  in  church-going,  the  reports 
thus  far  obtained  show  almost  nothing.  They  do  not 
even  attempt  to  state  the  number  of  members  included 
in  the  census  taken,  although  that  may  be  fairly  presumed 
to  be  somewhat  less  than  the  whole  attendance.  If  it 
had  been  obtained,  it  might  have  suggested  an  estimate 
of  the  number  absent  on  account  of  ordinary  contingen- 
cies. On  the  essential  question,  whether  more  or  fewer 
church  members  attend  than  formerly,  in  proportion  to 
their  whole  number,  these  reports  have  thus  far  not  a  lit- 
tle of  evidence  to  offer.  But  there  is  available  evidence 
in  statistics  of  church  membership,  church  buildings,  and 
church  contributions.  Increasing  membership  naturally 
implies  increasing  attendance.  If  accompanied  by  the 
multiplication,  enlargement,  and  improvement  of  church 
edifices,  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  church  attendance 
may  be  decreasing.  The  yearly  outlay  in  this  country 
for  maintaining,  repairing,  lighting,  warming,  and  furnish- 
ing counts  by  millions,  without  including  clerical  salaries. 
This  enormous  expense  is  borne  by  millions  of  uncom- 
pelled  contributors,  for  the  express  and  preeminent  pur- 
pose of  enabling  themselves  and  others  comfortably  to 
assemble  on  the  first  day  of  each  week  in  the  capacity 


26         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

of  persons  owing  supreme  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ  as 
Lord.  It  is  not  credible  that  these  millions  would  con- 
tinue to  pay  while  ceasing  to  use.  It  is  impossible  that 
their  voluntary  outlay  should  increase,  while  their  inter- 
est declined.     The  reverse  is  also  true.^ 

But  whether  attendance  is  increasing  or  decreasing,  it 
is  clear  that  a  decrease  would  indicate  a  lessening  of 
Christian  loyalty.  It  might  or  might  not  mean  that 
fewer  persons  "  professed  and  call  themselves  Christians," 
but  it  would  certainly  imply  less  inclination  to  make  sac- 
rifices for  the  Christ.  It  might  or  might  not  indicate 
a  pi'evalent  decadence  from  orthodoxy,  or  from  what  is 
generally  understood  now  by  the  phrase  "  evangelical 
doctrine ;  "  but  it  would  certainly  betoken  the  likelihood 
of  general  apathy  toward  religious  subjects  and  enter- 
prises. It  might  or  might  not  be  a  sign  of  moral  laxity  ; 
but  it  would  be  positive  evidence  that  their  Lord  was  less 
thought  of,  and  less  honored,  by  his  nominal  followers. 
Let  a  decline  in  public  worship  be  pi-oven,  and  no  argu- 
ment would  be  needed  to  satisfy  any  one  that  private 
worship  had  at  least  proportionally  declined.  It  would 
be  clear  enough  that  the  coherence  of  the  Church  was 
weakening,  that  the  force  which  had  bound  Ciiristians 
together  was  relaxing,  that  disintegration  was  beginning, 
to  prepare  for  dissolution. 

But  instead  of  disintegration,  an  impulse  to  larger  com- 

1  It  would  be  intcrestinfi;  to  compare  the  average  Sunday  attend- 
ance of  church  members  with  the  attendance  of  members  of  other 
societies,  charitable  and  industrial,  at  their  regular  meetings.  What 
proportion  of  the  shareholders  in  banks,  railways,  and  other  corpo- 
rations are  found  at  even  annual  meetings  ?  How  much  care  and 
solicitation  is  required  to  secure  regularly  a  quorum  of  directors  or 
trustees  of  financial  institutions  ?  How  many  subscribers  to  char- 
itable and  social  organizations  come  to  their  regular  meetings  V 
Perhaps,  if  the  question  could  be  fn'ly  studied,  the  Church  might 
after  all  appear  in  the  leading  place. 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE   DAY.  27 

bination  has  been  felt  widely  and  deeply.  An  inter-de- 
nominational polity  has  grown  np,  corresponding  fairly  to 
the  development  in  the  political  sphere  of  international 
law.  A  strong  desire  for  more  inclusive  fellowship  and 
cooperation  has  become  visible  in  the  action  of  many  of 
the  great  organized  ecclesiastical  bodies.  There  has  been 
a  Pan-Anglican  movement,  likewise  a  Pan-Presbyterian. 
International  councils  of  Methodists,  Independents,  and 
others  have  been  summoned.  OflBcial  delegates  have 
represented  their  constituents  in  these  union  movements. 
The  Evangelical  Alliance  is  a  manifest  result  of  the  same 
tendency ;  and  likewise  the  generally  acknowledged  duty 
of  "  comity  "  in  missionary  and  other  administration. 

The  same  strong  tendency  is  manifest  among  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  membership,  apart  from  any  official  action, 
and  likewise  apart  from  any  merely  benevolent  or  only 
semi-religious  interest.  Thus  the  great  Bible  societies 
have  been  sustained.  More  recently,  the  plan  for  identi- 
cal Bible  study  in  Sunday-schools  has  attained  an  enor- 
mous extension.  The  "  Week  of  Prayer  "  is  observed  in 
all  parts.  "  Unions  "  for  simultaneous  special  religious 
exercises  have  obtained,  sometimes,  tens  of  thousands  of 
participants  from  diverse  sects  and  from  far  separate 
places. 

These  are  notable  religious  phenomena  in  our  age,  and 
there  are  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  them  which  cannot 
be  avoided.  They  do  not  imply  indifference  to  doctrine 
or  feebleness  of  denominational  energy.  They  do  indi- 
cate, however,  that  the  general  Christian  mind  is  con- 
vinced of  a  fundamental  affinity  between  all  who  are  loyal 
to  Christ,  and  that  the  Christian  imagination  is  capti- 
vated by  this  idea.  The  limited  Christian  fellowship  ex- 
perienced (chiefi}^  on  the  Lord's  Day)  evidently  suggests 
to  millions  of  believers  a  vision  of  a  religious  community, 
numerous,  various,  widespread  beyond  precise  definition. 


28  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Its  multiform  unity  is  not  so  easil}'  grasped  by  keen  and 
trained  intellects.  All  nationalities  and  languages,  all 
conditions  and  varieties  of  mankind,  are  represented  in  it. 
All  manner  of  minds,  all  schools  of  philosophy,  all  equi- 
pages of  logic  are  symbolized.  All  kinds  of  organization 
are  displayed,  simple  and  complex  ;  some  slowly  builded 
during  ages  of  struggle  and  fortitude  ;  some  deliberately 
constructed  in  milder  times,  after  an  approved  and  more 
or  less  symmetric  model;  some  the  development  of  vague 
impulse  and  crude  judgment;  some  yet  inchoate  with 
only  a  rudimentary  cohesiveness.  They  show  many 
degrees  in  evangelistic  activity,  in  intellectual  apprehen- 
sion of  spiritual  truth,  in  moral  consistency.  Some  are 
more  or  less  confused.  Some  are  more  or  less  weighted 
with  prejudice.  Some  are  more  or  less  slow  to  shake  off 
"  the  former  lusts  of  their  ignorance."  But  all  profess 
unreserved  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord,  and  in  this 
profession  only  they  find  their  absolutely  universal  bond. 
For,  under  whatever  peculiarities  of  manners  or  doctrines 
beating,  the  heart  of  a  brother  is  by  this  sincere  profes- 
sion revealed  and  recognized.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  univer- 
sal confidence  resting  upon  statements  in  the  Bible  re- 
garded by  all  as  of  divine  authority",  that  whatever 
imperfections,  errors,  or  inadvertencies  may  mark  a  true 
believer  or  a  body  of  such,  these  blemishes  may  and  will 
be  removed  under  superintendence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
through  deeper  personal  experience,  wider  acquaintance 
with  mankind,  and  closer  study  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and 
further,  that  of  their  removal  in  due  time  the  exhibition 
of  true  loyalty  is  itself  a  guaranty. 

Thus,  in  our  age  as  never  since  the  apostolic,  have  the 
great  mass  of  believers  realized  that  in  loyalty  to  their  one 
Lord  stands  the  unity  of  their  brotherhood,  and  the  one 
indefeasible  evidence  of  a  part  in  it.  But  of  all  the  phe- 
nomena which  exhibit  the  loyalty  and  the  affinity  of  Chris- 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF   THE  DAY.  29 

tians,  what  compares  in  significance  or  in  sweep  of  influ- 
ence with  that  institution  which  every  week  begins  to 
bear  the  Lord's  name  in  tlie  far-off  Pacific,  awakens  be- 
lievers in  Japan,  in  Australasia,  in  China,  and  on  through 
every  meridian  in  Asia,  in  Europe,  in  Africa,  and  in 
America,  away  to  the  island  kingdom  of  Hawaii  and  be- 
yond ;  until  it  ceases  in  the  sea  where  it  began,  —  calling 
the  whole  Christian  host  of  every  nation  and  language 
and  race,  under  the  whole  circuit  of  the  sun,  to  that  day's 
common  united  worship  of  Jesus  the  Lord  !  What  ubiq- 
uitous consent  like  this  has  the  world  ever  known  ?  In 
what  other  associated  action  do  all  divisions  of  man  par- 
ticipate ?  After  all  her  centuries,  what  has  Christianity 
now  or  ever  to  show  in  evidence,  not  of  her  wise  charity, 
nor  of  her  consistent  morality,  nor  of  her  triumphant 
civilization,  —  but  of  that  which  is  her  supreme  charac- 
teristic, —  of  that  which  surpasses,  includes,  guarantees 
all  these  others,  —  of  her  loyal  devotion  to  her  Lord  —  so 
public,  so  impressive,  so  convincing,  as  the  world-round 
worshiping  assemblies  of  the  Lord's  Day  ? 


STUDY   II. 

THE   ORIGINATION   OF   THE  LORD"s   DAY. 

"  The  First  Day  of  the  Week."  —  Matt,  xxviii.  1  ;  Mark  xvi.  2,  9 ; 
Luke  xxiv.  1  ;  John  xx.  1, 19. 

As  Christians  now  assemble  on  the  Lord's  Day  to 
worship  their  Lord  by  professing  their  loyalty  to  Him, 
so  have  they  always  assembled.  The  observance  is  traced 
clearly  back  to  the  days  of  the  apostles.  During  the 
whole  period  of  the  Church's  existence,  tlie  first  day  of 
each  week  has  been  the  occasion  for  substantially  the 
same  manner  and  spirit  of  celebration.  There  have 
been,  indeed,  in  various  ages  and  places,  additional  days 
for  worship.  For  a  long  time  the  seventh  day  Avas  kept 
as  sacred.  Saints'  days  and  festival  days  have  sometimes 
been  more  prominent.  But  along  with  all  others  —  far 
more  than  any  other  —  the  Lord's  Day  has  been  main- 
tained in  honor,  not  of  saints  nor  of  the  absolute  Deity, 
but  of  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord.  References  to  the  Lord's 
Day  in  literature  begin  with  the  writings  of  men  who 
Pliny,  Epist.  wcre  bom  before  all  of  the  apostles  were  dead. 
Lib.  X.  97.  Xhus  Pliiy,  the  heathen  governor,  in  his  well- 
known  letter  to  Trajan,  declared  that  the  Christians  con- 
just.Mart.  fesscd  to  meeting  on  a  stated  day  to  praise 
Jp.°9°7f  98""'  Christ.  Justin,  the  Christian  martyr,  wrote 
Londoli,i722.  ^1^,^^.^  Qj^  ^jjg  ^^^  called  Sunday,  they  held  their 

assemblies  for  reading  the  Scrijjtures,  prayer  to  Christ, 
alms-giving,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  These  men  wrote 
not  far  from  a  century  after  the  resurrection.     All  that 


TEE   ORIGINATION   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.        31 

remains  from  tlie  earliest  Christian  authors  confirms  their 
statements. 

However  it  may  have  varied  in  other  respects,  the 
Lord's  Day  has,  therefore,  come  down  through  the  Chris- 
tian ages  unchanged  in  this  one  feature  of  the  general 
assembly  for  the  worship  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
This  worship,  moreover,  has  always  retained  the  ele- 
ments mentioned  in  those  earliest  times,  —  praise  to 
Christ  as  God,  prayer,  reading  of  apostolic  writings  with 
those  of  the  Hebrew  canon,  alms-giving,  addresses  didac- 
tic or  hortatory,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  festival 
character  of  the  day  has  also  continued  the  same.  Before 
Pliny  or  Justin,  a  writer  called  Barnabas  de-  g  Bamabas 
Glared  that  Christians  celebrate  this  day  "  for  ^pist.  §15.' 
enjoyment "  (ets  eicfipoavvrjv^.^  The  "  fathers  "  indeed  laid 
stress  upon  this.  They  insisted  that  it  was  wrong  to  fast 
or  to  give  way  to  any  sorrow  on  that  day.  Ter-  Tertuinan, 
tullian  writes,  "  Sunday  we  indulge  in  glad-  -'^p"^'  ^  ^^- 
ness.    ^ 

As  the  influence  of  Christianity  spread,  the  general 
society  of  the  Roman  Empire,  even  so  much  of  it  as 
remained  heathen,  shared  more  and  more  in  the  Chris- 
tian method  of  counting  time.  The  week  became  grad- 
ually familiar.  The  peculiar  series  of  planetary  names, 
whose  equivalents  we  still  employ,  had  been  widely 
known  for  ages.  In  ancient  China,  it  is  said,  gaiiiy,  as- 
the  zodiac  was  divided  into  twenty-eight  parts,  d'ienn^'ouc' 
bearing  this  series  of  names  four  times  re-  ^"^^'P'"'- 
peated.  Thus  the  old  Chinese  year,  it  might  be  said, 
was  divided  into  four  zodiacal  weeks.  Among  the 
Greeks  the  first  seven  days  of  each  month  seem  to  have 

1  All)  Kol  &yofi(v  T^v  7]^4pav  tV  oyZ6-r\v  ^Is  ivcppoavvf\v.  Barnabas, 
Epist.  §  15. 

^  -(3Eque  si  diem  solis  laetitise  indulgemus,  alia  longc  ratione  quam 
de  religione  solis,  etc     Tertull.  Ap.  16. 


32  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

borne  the  same  series  of  names  as  sacred  to  those  seven 

deities  of  their  Pantheon  who  were   associated 

7 contra         with   thesc   heavenlv  bodies:  namely,  Apollo, 

Thebes,  806.       .     ^        .  t^-  a  -v  r  tt 

Artemis  or  JDiana,  Ares  or  Mars,  Hermes  or 
Mei'cury,  Zeus  or  Jupiter,  Aphrodite  or  Venus,  and  Saturn. 
According  to  Dio  Cassius,  the  Romans  learned  the 
names  of  tlie  week  days  from  the  Egyptians.'^  It  seems 
probable  that  in  ancient  Chaldea  the  names  of  these 
orbs  or  deities  were  given  to  the  seven  days  of  a  week. 
The  character  of  this  week  is  not  clearly  ascertained, 
but  it  was  not  the  week  as  we  know  it.  It  is,  how- 
ever, almost  certain  that  although  this  series  of  names 
was  known  so  widely,  it  was  never  in  popular  use  until 
Christian  times.  Believers  readily  accepted  Sunday  for 
the  title  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  since  it  suggested 
their  Lord  as  the  "  Sun  of  Righteousness."  Since  early 
Christianity  seems  to  have  gained  the  trading  and  ar- 
tisan classes  much  more  than  the  learned,  political,  or 
agricultural,  and  thus  to  have  brought  its  habits  and 
practices  into  contact  with  the  details  of  social  life,  hea- 
thendom, drifting  involuntarily  along  with  its  current 
of  time-reckoning,  found  the  series  of  seven  names  to  fit 
as  never  before.  Under  Constantine,  the  legal  establish- 
ment of  Sunday  as  a  day  of  vacation  and  as  a  substitute 

*  According  to  Dio  (Hist.  Rome,  xxxvii.  18,  19)  the  Egj-ptians 
divided  the  hours  into  sevens,  allotting  to  each  a  planetary  deity : 
1,  Saturn;  2,  Jupiter;  3,  Mars;  4,  Sun;  5,  Venus;  6,  Mercury; 
7,  Moon.  The  planet  assigned  to  the  first  hour  of  the  day  named 
the  day.  And  as  3  X  7  -}-  3  =  24,  the  first  hour  of  the  next  day 
and  the  next  day  would  be  named  by  the  planet  fourth  in  this  series 
from  that  naming  the  previous  day.  Suppose  1st  hour  1st  day  = 
Saturn,  — 1st  hour  2d  day  (1  +  24  =  3  X  7  +  4  =  )  Sun,  —  1st  hour 
3d  day  (1  +  24  +  24  =  7  X  '  =:)  INIoon,  etc.  Some  ingenious 
Egyptian  palmed  off  this  invention  on  Dio.  The  names  of  the  days 
are  as  old  as  the  earliest  Assyrian  records,  of  which  the  cunning 
priest  who  contrived  this  scheme  of  hours  to  fit  the  days  doubtless 
knew  nothinor. 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.      33 

for  the  Nundine  was  apparently  acceptable  to  all  par- 
ties. 

Thus  it  appears,  that,  as  an  institution  with  which 
society  and  government  are  concerned,  as  a  festival  win- 
ning a  certain  appreciation  from  unbelievers  as  well  as  the 
faithful,  as  the  observance  by  which  his  true  followers 
have  testified  in  assembly  their  united  loyalty  to  their 
Lord,  —  the  Lord's  Day  has  been  from  the  first  essen- 
tially what  it  is  now.  Overlooking  therefore  all  the  in- 
tervening centuries,  whatever  their  developments  of  doc- 
trine or  practice,  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament  to 
examine,  as  carefully  as  possible,  its  testimony  concerning 
the  origination  of  the  day. 

For  these  studies,  three  premises  will  be  accepted  by 
all  Christian  readers  :  — 

1st.  The  silence  as  well  as  the  utterance  of  Scripture 
must  be  regarded  as  designed  or  inspired. 

2d.  The  Holy  Spirit,  by  whose  authority  the  Scripture 
speaks,  has  also  guided  the  community  of  true  believers 
towards  that  development  of  doctrine  and  practice  which 
in  essence  corresponds  with  the  intent  of  his  Word. 

3d.  But  the  silence  and  the  utterance  of  Scripture  are 
explained  by  other  voices  and  by  the  general  voice  of  all 
Scripture,  and  by  the  results  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  work 
developed  in  history ;  all  these  being  in  full  accord,  and 
mutual  support. 

Taking  up  the  New  Testament  in  the  light  of  these 
principles,  the  fact  becomes  significant,  that  in  it  there  is 
so  little  concerning  this  day.  Tliere  is  indeed  less  than 
concerning  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  There  is  no 
account  of  a  formal  institution.  There  is  no  distinct 
command  for  maintenance.  Yet  the  fact  of  the  day's 
existence  and  endurance  shows  that  there  must  have  been 
something  recorded  or  unrecorded  in  the  commands  or 
the  circumstances  or  the  inheritance  of  the  Early  Church, 


34         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

which  not  only  gave  the  day  its  momentum,  but  also 
made  it  so  much  more  than  a  memorial.  It  would  have 
been  natural,  that  is,  it  would  have  been  in  perfect  con- 
formity with  the  general  custom  of  mankind,  historically 
exemjjlified  a  thousand  times,  if  an  annual  celebi'ation  of 
the  resurrection  had  been  instituted.  Our  Easter  is  not 
only  a  grateful  and  appropriate  festival.  It  is  so  thor- 
oughly consistent  with  the  habits  of  all  sorts  of  people, 
of  all  places  and  times,  that  its  observance  might  have 
been  expected.  But  contrary  to  all  human  experience, 
Easter,  as  a  Christian  festival  in  honor  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, is  not  heard  of  for  centuries.  Probably  the  Pass- 
over season  reminded  the  Church  rather  of  the  Lord's 
suffering.  But  whatever  causes  may  have  been  imme- 
diate, the  divine  Providence,  overruling,  did  in  fact  pro- 
vide that,  before  an  annual  festival,  the  natural,  appro- 
priate, customary,  and  entirely  human  memorial  of  the 
resurrection  should  be  adopted,  —  the  weekly  day,  pe- 
culiar, and  unlike  any  human  memorial,  should  be  es- 
tablished in  the  church's  thought  and  heart,  not  so  much 
as  a  memorial,  but  much  more  as  a  reiteration  of  living 
loyalty.  Outside  the  history  of  our  religion  there  was 
nothing  to  suggest  or  explain  it. 

The  phrase,  "  Lord's  Day,"  occurs  but  once  in  the 
Scriptures.     This  phrase  is  short,  apt,  complete. 

'  '  '  It  expressed  conveniently  and  accurately  the 
familiar  thought  of  the  Churclj.  The  peculiar  relation 
of  this  institution  to  the  risen  Saviour,  as  a  celebration 
of  his  assumption  of  majesty,  including  his  subjugation 
of  nature  as  well  as  of  nature's  destroyer,  —  answered  to 
a  peculiar  homage  and  allegiance  insured  to  him  by  this 
unique  day.  Thus,  the  two  words  of  this  short  Scripture 
phrase  imply  a  comparison  of  his  day  with  the  Mosaic 
Sabbath,  and  of  his  Lordship  with  that  of  Him  who  or- 
dained the  seventh  day  as  a  sign  to  Israel.     The  com- 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.      oD 

parison  is  with  these  alone.  No  deity  of  the  heathen,  no 
leader  of  men,  has  ever  been  honored  with  such  a  day. 
The  followers  of  Mohammed  have  never  professed  to  keep 
their  Friday  as  the  prophet's  day.  It  is  avowedly  a  con- 
tinuation of  that  institution  of  a  weekly  day  of  worship, 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  whose  authority  the  Koran  ac- 
knowledges. Therefore  Islam  has  never  worshiped  Mo- 
hammed on  its  Friday,  It  asserts  the  worship  of  God 
alone.  But  the  Church  on  her  Lord's  Day  has  always 
worshiped  her  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  She  worshiped 
Him  as  in  the  highest  sense  even  in  essential  deity  one 
with  Him  whom  Moses  called  Jehovah :  yet  also  as  in  a 
certain  sense  distinct  from  Him  whom  He,  Jesus  him- 
self, called  Father.  So,  appearing  side  by  side  with  the 
older  Sabbath,  —  facing  it,  each  the  head  of  the  series 
forward  and  backward  of  the  weeks,  absorbing  the  older 
day  in  itself,  as  the  highest  exponent  of  that  one  week  of 
identical  age-long  succession,  —  the  Lord's  Day  set  forth 
the  continuity  of  that  one  religion  handed  down  from 
patriarchs  and  prophets,  and  completely  embodied  in  the 
person  of  our  Lord.  Yet,  as  in  its  name  distinguished 
from  the  day  of  God,  Jehovah,  and  in  its  position  ad- 
vanced to  the  beginning  of  the  week,  it  set  forth  a  con- 
trast between  faith  in  God,  who  —  in  however  many 
ways  He  had  come  near  to  man,  and  by  however  many 
material  types  and  words  and  disciplinary  providences 
He  had  manifested  a  relation  between  himself  and  man 
—  was  not  of  us  or  like  us :  and  faith  in  Him,  who, 
however  divine  in  essence,  was  man  also,  and  man  first  of 
all  to  human  perception  :  the  faith  which  made  religion, 
the  tie  between  God  and  man,  the  simplest,  dearest,  first. 
In  these  two  woi'ds,  "  Lord's  Day,"  the  mysteries  of  the 
Incarnation  and  of  the  Trinity  are  hidden.  In  them 
"  the  Lord  "  is  distinguished  from  God  the  Father,  as 
clearly  as  the  seventh  day  from  the  first.      But  in  mark- 


86         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

ing  the  honor  paid  to  our  Lord  of  a  weekly  day  of  hom- 
age, an  honor  which  humanity  in  all  the  ages  has  never 
paid  to  any  less  than  Deity,  these  words  express  his  one- 
ness with  the  Eternal  God,  just  as  the  light  of  Saturday's 
and  of  Sunday's  sun  is  the  one  Light  which  has  not 
ceased  to  encircle  the  world. 

The  single  occurrence  of  this  phrase  may  be  compared 
with  the  rarity  of  the  word  Christian  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, This  word  is  found  three  times.  But  an  apostle 
1  Pet.  4:6.  uscs  it  ouly  ouce.  Lithe  other  instances  it  is 
Actfiii:26;  in  the  mouths  of  unbelievers.  Thus,  as  for  the 
first  phrase,  apostolic  authority  is  given.  But  it 
cannot  be  without  purpose  that  such  authority  is  given 
only  once.  We  must  infer  that  while  these  names  are 
good,  suitable,  and  approved  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
stress  of  doctrine  or  practice  must  not  be  laid  upon  them 
alone,  but  their  meaning  rather  must  be  gathered  from 
all  the  rest  of  the  Sacred  Word.  Experience  has  proved 
that  the  name  Christian  may  imply  very  much  or  very 
little.  It  was  pregnant  enough  before  one  of  Nero's  or  of 
Diocletian's  prastors.  In  some  quarters  now  it  seems  to 
differ  from  heathen  only  as  if  it  described  one  more  va- 
cant of  regard  for  God.  The  expressiveness  of  the  phrase 
Lord's  Day  has  varied  quite  as  much.  To  English  or 
German  eai's  it  is  still  full  of  solemn  significance.  But 
to  the  Frenchman  ^  or  Spaniai-d  or  Italian,  it  is  as  color- 
less as  the  name  Sunday  among  us.  It  has  simply  taken 
the  place  of  our  Sunday  among  the  names  of  the  days. 

In  fine  the  use  of  this  phrase  by  an  apostle  once  is 
inspired  testimony  to  the  character  of  the  day,  as  an 
institution  compared  or  contrasted  with  the  Mosaic  Sab- 
bath, but  devoted  to  our  Lord,  —  the  single  occurrence  of 
the  phrase  is  a  warning  not  to  lay  undue  weight  upon 

^  Frencli,  Dimanche ;  Italian,  Dominica;  Spanish,  Domingo;  all 
are  forms  of  the  Latin  Dominica  (sc.  Dies)  =  the  Lord's  Day. 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.       37 

the  name  alone,  but  to  seek  elsewhere  the  divine  pur- 
pose which  is  the  living  spirit  within  the  body  of  the 
institution  so  named.  Papists  of  southeastern  Europe 
call  it  always  the  Lord's  Day,  but  they  pay  scant  homage 
to  the  Lord.  Evangelical  believers  commonly  call  it 
Sunday,  but  they  delight  to  celebrate  it  by  united  wor- 
ship to  their  Lord  alone. 

From  the  name,  therefore,  the  mind  turns  to  that 
supreme  moment  in  our  Lord's  career  which  gives  the 
name  its  force.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans 
that  He  was  "  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God 
with  power  ...  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead." 
The  "  power  "  of  this  declaration  or  "  determination  " 
(margin  A.  V.,  R.  V.)  could  not  have  been  felt  at  once  in 
its  full  extent.  The  impression  made  upon  the  apostles, 
who  were  staggering  under  the  strain  of  faith,  and  the 
wrench  of  hope,  and  the  horrible  shame  of  the  cruci- 
fixion day,  can  be  compared  with  nothing  but  the  im- 
pression we  shall  receive  when  we  shall  have  realized  our 
own  resurrection.  The  effect  was  not  produced  at  one 
moment,  nor  by  the  one  circumstance  that  their  Lord 
who  had  died  reappeared  living.  Doubtless  if  the  ap- 
pearance of  resurrection  day  could  have  sufficed  for 
human  nature,  our  Lord  would  not  have  deferred  his 
ascension  for  foi'ty  days.  We  must  believe  that  all  his 
acts  during  those  forty  days  were  intended  and  adapted 
to  deepen  and  to  perfect  in  its  proportions  the  impres- 
sion received  on  the  resurrection  day.  Its  reality  was 
first  thoroughly  fastened  in  their  consciousness.  Luke 
(in  the  Acts)  states  that  He  showed  his  return  to  life  by 
many  infallible  proofs,  specifying  his  repeated  appear- 
ances, and  his  discourses  on  such  occasions.  John  notes 
his  obtaining  personal  recognition  from  individuals,  his 
benediction  on  the  assembly,  his  eating  with  them,  his 
miracle  of  the  draught  of  fish,  and  "  many  other  signs." 


38         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  (in  the  gospel)  simply  record 
how  He  was  recognized,  and  how  He  proved  his  material 
and  bodily  identity  by  eating  and  by  showing  his  wounds. 
Plainly,  the  utmost  care  was  taken  to  convince  his  fol- 
lowers that  He  was  the  very  man  Jesus  who  had  died  on 
the  cross,  —  the  very  body  and  soul  and  manhood,  not 
an  appearance  nor  a  disembodied  spirit,  or  aught  but  his 
own  absolute  self.  Plainly,  too,  this  fact  was  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  comprehended,  and  very  slowly  realized 
by  them.  Plainly,  however,  they  did  at  last  become  per- 
fectly certain  of  the  fact.  After  that  they  professed 
themselves  witnesses  preeminentl}''  of  his  resurrection  in 
very  body  of  flesh  and  bones.  They  built  their  gospel 
on  that  fact. 

But  even  these  very  brief  narratives  show  that  some- 
thing more  needed  to  be  effected,  and  at  last  was  effected. 
For  alongside  of  our  Lord's  manifestations  must  be  set 
his  disappearances.  He  did  not  remain  with  his  dis- 
ciples. He  showed  himself  for  a  time  and  then  vanished. 
Only  a  very  few  times  thus  must  He  have  showed  hira- 
1  Cor.  15:  ^®^^*  Paul  mentious  five.  He  was  not  giving 
^"""  a  catalogue,   and  omits  some   elsewhere  men- 

tioned, but  could  not  have  mentioned  these  five  in  such  a 
connection  if  there  had  been  many  more.  His  argument 
is  that  there  had  been  interviews  enough,  and  with  suf- 
ficiently diverse  persons  and  classes,  to  establish  the  fact, 
and  the  capacity  of  the  witnesses  to  certify  it  without 
the  possibility  of  being  mistaken.  It  is  taken  for  granted 
that  He  was  seen  on  not  many  of  the  forty  days.  He 
did  not  live  with  his  followers  as  formerly.  He  visited 
them.  With  one  exception,  there  is,  however,  nothing 
by  which  to  estimate  the  interval  between  these  visits. 
The  narratives  are  all  so  framed  as  to  countenance  no 
ritualistic  use  of  such  occasions.  If  it  had  been  declared 
that  on  the  first  day  of  each  week,  and  then  only,  the 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.        39 

Lord  had  appeared,  a  tradition  might  easily  have  gone 
down  that  on  such  days  only  was  He  to  be  worshiped 
or  expected  to  bless  or  save.  What  might  have  come 
out  of  such  an  idea  during  the  thousand  years  of  super- 
stition,—  the  dark  ages,  — no  one  need  conjecture.  But 
the  Church  has  never  known  this  error.  There  has  never 
been  a  day  when  believers  have  felt  that  their  Lord  was 
inaccessible.  This  freedom  has  been  in  no  small  measure 
preserved  to  us  by  the  silence  of  the  evangelists.  Nor 
has  it  been  without  the  restraint  of  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence, that  the  usurping  hierarchy  did  not  make  Sunday 
their  special  care,  but  rather  obscured  it  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  other  festivals  and  observances.  Some  of  these 
other  days  were  the  signs  of  homage  to  the  hierarchy 
and  of  subjection  to  superstition.  The  Lord's  Day  re- 
mained through  all  these  centuries,  so  far  as  it  retained 
any  religious  significance,  a  day  for  profession  of  faith  in 
Jesus  the  Lord,  and  of  homage  to  Him  personally.  That 
it  should  become  the  special  day  of  general  public  homage 
to  Him,  and  remain  at  the  same  time,  though  special  not 
exclusive,  and  though  consecrated  yet  divested  of  any 
perfunctory  dignity,  hallowed  for  the  purpose  of  worship- 
ing the  Lord,  by  no  means  hallowed  for  the  purpose  of 
accomplishing  any  ritual,  —  the  silence  and  omission  of 
Scripture  with  the  continued  discipline  of  the  Spirit 
provided.  Since  it  did  become  at  once  the  central  fact 
externally  of  the  church's  organic  life,  —  that  is,  the 
occasion  when  the  church's  activity  as  a  church  be- 
came visible  in  her  act  of  general  worship,  —  it  might 
be  expected  that  the  one  exception  to  the  silence  of  the 
Scripture  would  afford,  when  duly  weighed,  the  explana- 
tion of  so  momentous  a  fact  otherwise  not  explained. 

All  the  evangelists  state  that  our  Lord's  resurrection 
took  place  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  No  other  note 
of  time  seems  to  have   occurred  to  them.     Fifteen  or 


40         EIGHT  STUDIES  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

twenty  years  must  have  passed  before  the  first  gospel 
appeared,  —  more  than  fifty  before  tlie  last  was  written. 
The  writers  were  mature  in  experience  and  in  acquaint- 
ance with  the  growing  church.  And  they  were  inspired. 
But  apparently  they  felt  no  interest  concerning  the  year 
or  the  month  or  the  day  of  the  month.  It  must  be  that 
the  church  of  their  age  was  equally  indifferent  to  these 
matters.  The  week  was  the  one  period  in  the  church's 
mind.  There  must  have  been  something  in  the  nature 
of  the  week  as  a  historical  institution,  and  as  an  inherit- 
ance of  the  apostles  and  of  the  Church,  to  account  for 
this.  But  John,  in  the  latest  gospel,  shows  how  our 
Lord,  by  his  own  acts,  sanctioned  the  week  and  the 
weekly  Lord's  Day.  Yet  this  information  is  given  inci- 
dentally, as  though  the  week  ought  of  itself  to  be  a  suffi- 
cient explanation  of  its  own  continuance. 

In  the  twentieth  chapter  of  this  gospel  John  relates 
certain  particulars  of  the  resurrection  morning  and  of 
our  Lord's  entry  at  the  disciples'  evening  gathering. 
Then,  in  order  as  it  would  seem  to  illustrate  in  the  case 
of  Thomas  what  care  our  Lord  took  to  satisfy  all  doubts 
as  to  his  bodily  identity,  something  is  recorded  of  another 
gathering  at  which  He  appeared  on  the  next  Sunday. 
In  the  twentj'-first  chapter  John  proceeds  :  "  After  these 
things  Jesus  showed  himself  again  to  the  disciples  at 
the  Sea  of  Galilee."  Having  described  the  recognition, 
John  adds  (verse  14)  :  "  This  is  now  the  third  time  that 
Jesus  showed  himself  to  his  disciples  after  that  He  was 
risen  from  the  dead."  Thus  we  learn  that  the  risen 
Jesus  appeared  first  on  his  resurrection  day,  the  second 
time  on  the  next  Sunday,  and  the  third  time,  after  an 
unknown  interval,  at  the  lake-side.  For  six  whole  days 
between  the  rising  day  and  its  octave  He  was  absent. 
John  20:  Was  this  a  slight  matter  to  the  timid  company 
19.26.  ^Ijq  received  Him  in  their  retreat  behind  closed 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY.        41 

doors !  Will  it  be  supposed  that  their  emotions  were 
calm  and  their  reasoning  cool  at  that  first  reunion.  One 
week  before  they  had  stood  upon  a  pinnacle  of  triumph. 
They  had  followed  their  Lord  while  He  was  welcomed 
with  acclamations  to  Jerusalem  as  the  heir  of  David  and 
King  of  Israel.  Half  a  week  before  they  had  been  lifted 
to  a  loftier  height,  in  spiritual  exaltation,  as  they  lis- 
tened with  their  own  ears  to  that  sublime  and  tender 
discourse  on  the  passover  evening.  Then  with  startling 
suddenness  they  had  seen  the  "King  of  Israel"  a  help- 
less prey.  They  had  seen  their  teacher  and  friend 
mocked  by  authority  and  outraged  in  his  person.  They 
had  seen  their  Lord,  their  Christ,  hung  between  wretched 
thieves  and  dead  upon  a  gibbet.  It  does  not  seem  possi- 
ble to  exaggerate  the  strain  which  they  endured.  It  did 
not  cease  when  the  pierced  body  was  laid  in  Joseph's 
tomb.  It  did  not  cease  through  the  Sabbath  quietude. 
It  did  not  cease  when  the  first  dawn  of  the  next  week 
called  them  to  various  errands  of  duty.  Luke  i,„]5e24: 
has  drawn  a  vivid  sketch  of  their  state  in  the  ^^■^'^• 
episode  of  the  walk  to  Emmaus.  They  could  not  utterly 
despair,  yet  they  could  not  conceive  of  anything  in  which 
hope  could  be  embodied.  They  had,  indeed,  seen  every 
force  of  nature,  and  of  the  supernatural,  so  far  as  they 
knew  either,  subject  to  his  bare  word.  The  dead  three 
times  at  least  had  been  roused  to  the  resumption  of  life 
by  his  voice.  In  their  very  hearts  they  had  trusted 
"  that  it  had  been  He  that  should  have  redeemed  ,,„,„, 

Luke  24  :  21. 

Israel."     But   their  confidence    seems  to  have 

been  built  on  his  physical  and  perhaps  on  his  psychical 

power.     He   was   "  mit^hty  in   deed   and  word         „.  ,„ 

^  &      J  _  Luke  24: 19. 

before  God  and  all  the  people."     Such  might 
ought  to   have  overcome  the  heathen   and   the  gentile. 
But  it  did  not.     It  seemed   to  vanish   at  the  touch  of 
Roman   hands,  as  Samson's   at   the   touch  of  Delilah's 


42         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

shears.  It  was  drowned  in  abject  shame.  The  shame, 
perhaps,  was  as  potent  as  tlie  horror  to  unman  them. 
Yet  after  all  He  had  preserved  his  dignity  to  the  end. 
He  had  yielded  but  He  had  not  been  overcome.  Every 
word  and  act  was  full  of  the  old  authority.  Sanhedrim, 
king,  and  governor  had  felt  his  rebuke  but  had  not  seen 
Him  quail.  The  appealing  wretch  hanging  beside  Hira 
had  been  comforted.  The  soldiers  who  pierced  his  hands 
had  heard  Him  invoke  divine  compassion  on  their  igno- 
rance. The  Roman  officer  in  charge  of  the  execution 
had  been  self-compelled  to  acknowledge  Him  as  the  Son 
of  God.  And  then  the  words  were  recalled  in  which  He 
himself  had  foretold  them  of  this  suffering  and  death 
and  of  a  third  day  on  which  He  should  rise. 

Mark  9:9.^  .  "^ 

They  questioned  much  what  this  rising  should 
mean.  It  could  not  be  like  the  recall  of  Jairus'  daughter, 
or  of  the  young  Nainite,  or  of  Lazarus.  With  these  this 
recall  was  only  an  astonishing  incident.  It  was  of  very 
much  more  importance  than  a  recovery  from  critical  sick- 
ness. But  it  was  like  that  in  relation  to  the  other  inci- 
dents of  their  lives.  On  the  other  hand,  our  Lord's 
rising  was  to  be  a  climax.  Both  in  the  written  proj)he- 
cies  and  in  his  own  words  there  w^ere  power  and  glory 
and  victory,  and  the  full  majesty  of  the  Messianic  Do- 
minion, certainly  to  come.  This  rising  must,  therefore, 
precede  them, —  in  some  way  introduce  them.  And  on 
this  very  day  it  was  said  that  the  tomb  was  empty  and 
He  alive.  But  no  such  demonstrations  as  might  an- 
nounce the  assumption  of  his  kingdom  had  been  made. 
No  clang  of  angelic  shouts  and  trumpets  had  shaken  the 
world.  The  sun  shone  as  quietly  as  on  other  days,  and 
the  city  went  on  as  usual  with  all  its  affairs.  The  Ro- 
man yoke  had  not  been  loosened  a  whit  from  their  necks. 
Thus  the  state  of  mind  in  which  Cleopas  and  his  com- 
panion found  themselves  was  not  unlike  that  which  be- 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.        43 

lievers  often  now  experience  when  bereaved  of  some  one 
very  near  and  beloved.  They  may  know  facts  which 
prove  that  death  to  be  a  blessing.  They  may  know  and 
believe  the  promises  of  God.  They  may  have  had  pre- 
cious communion  with  their  Saviour  in  fellowship  with 
the  departed.  They  may  have  full  expectation  of  the 
future  life  and  its  reunion  for  both  the  dead  and  them- 
selves. All  these  things  may  be  in  their  minds  neither 
forgotten  nor  unheeded,  and  yet  the  one  supreme  fact  of 
death  may  so  engross  their  feelings  with  its  shock  and 
bitterness  that  all  other  considerations  seem  intangible. 
The  mind  perceives  but  cannot  attend  to  them.  Be- 
lievers sorrow  not  as  others  but  they  sorrow  wholly.  So 
Cleopas  and  his  friend,  though  not  in  utter  despair,  were 
sad.  From  many  little  touches  in  the  narrative  it  is 
evident  that  the  state  of  mind  of  the  two  was  that  of  all. 
Their  intellectual  faculties  were  in  a  measure  stunned, 
paralyzed.  When  they  all  gathered  at  their  evening 
meal  three  of  the  brethren  present,  one  of  these  an 
apostle,  testified  to  personal  interviews  with  the  Risen 
One.  Perhaps  Mary  also  was  there  to  tell  her  stor3\ 
Yet  when  Jesus  entered  suddenly  they  were  all  crazed 
with  terror  and  could  think  of  nothing  but  a  ghost ;  so 
that  He  upbraided  them  with  their  unbelief  and  Luke24:3s ; 
hardness  of  heart.  Even  then  He  had  to  con-  Marki6:i4.' 
vince  them  by  physical  evidence  that  He  was  truly  flesh 
and  blood.  Then  were  they  indeed  glad,  but  ^^^^  20:20- 
not  yet  with  a  rational  joy.  Since,  therefore,  ^"■^^24:^1. 
it  was  so  difficult  to  rouse  them  to  the  simple  external 
fact  of  the  resurrection,  —  a  fact  on  which  they  knew  the 
fulfillment  of  prophecy  turned,  a  fact  of  which  He  him- 
self had  again  and  again  instructed  them,  a  fact  witnesses 
to  which  had  come  forward  among  their  own  company 
with  explicit  testimony  impossible  to  gainsay,  a  fact  which 
the  sight  of  his  torn  hands,  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and 


44  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

his  eating  of  their  food,  in  addition  to  all  that  they  other- 
wise knew,  attested  in  every  way  possible  for  the  access 
of  knowledge  to  men,  —  how  could  the  deeper  meanings 
and  wider  results  of  his  rising  come  into  their  minds  at 
all.  As  the  evangelists  intimate,  it  was  necessary  to 
meet  them  again  and  again  in  order  to  fasten  this  one 
conviction  upon  all.  The  gathering  on  a  mountain  in 
Galilee,   whether    of    the   five   hundred    or  only   of  the 

eleven,  must  have  been  at  least  the  fourth  in- 
Matt.  28 :  17.  .  ^,  ,  ■        •  11 

terview.  let  even  at  this  time  we  are  told 
some  doubted. 

Another  impression  was  to  be  made.  And,  at  length, 
it  was  worked  out  into  clear  and  durable  relief.  While 
they  learned  his  human  identity,  they  were  also  learning 
his  majesty. 

When  He  left  the  company  that  evening,  what  a  whirl 
of  glad  emotion  was  thrilling  every  breast !  But,  He 
had  not  been  wont  to  hold  himself  aloof  from  them. 
Were  they  startled  by  this  unusual  withdrawal  ?  Or  were 
they  so  absorbed  in  grasping  his  return,  that  they  were 
little  affected  by  his  act  of  departing?  Or  was  there  a 
greater  awe  in  his  presence  than  they  had  ever  felt  be- 
fore ?  However  it  was,  He  went  from  them  in  the  night. 
Most  grateful  and  refreshing  must  have  been  the  sleep 
that  night  brought.  Enough  had  happened  to  exhaust 
their  active  powers.  There  might  well  be  given  them 
a  period  of  quiet  and  contemplation  longer  than  the 
night. 

So  morning  came  —  day  and  again  night  passed.  Day 
after  day  was  vacant  until  six  days  had  gone.  Where 
was  their  Lord  ?  He  did  not  come  to  them.  They  could 
not  find  Him.  All  the  particulars  of  that  first  day  were 
naturally  recounted.  Every  word  and  gesture  was  re- 
called and  commented  on.  Mary,  Peter,  Cleopas  and  his 
friend,  severally  repeated,  doubtless  more  than  once,  every 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY.        45 

circumstance  of  their  conversations  with  Him.  Well-re- 
membered portions  of  his  former  discourses  were  surely 
cited,  and  wonderingly  compared  with  passages  from  the 
prophets,  the  psalms,  and  the  law,  which  might  in  the 
least  bear  upon  this  great  event.  But  where  was  He  now? 
Was  there  not,  possibly,  after  all,  some  mistake.  They 
all  had  been  intensely  wrought  up.  Grief,  shame,  hope, 
joy,  all  the  diverse  winds  of  human  passion  had  swept 
over  them  in  a  tornado  whirl.  Might  not  their  over- 
strained souls  have  seen  a  phantasm  created  by  them- 
selves ?  Could  they  assure  each  other  of  their  several 
sanity?  Could  they  attest  the  active  consciousness  of 
each  other,  if  they  persisted  in  declaring  that  they  had 
seen  Him  ?  Had  they  just  seen  Him,  just  once,  and  for 
one  hour  ?  If  it  were  indeed  really  He,  was  this  then  all  ? 
Had  He  appeared  for  the  moment  to  leave  them  entirely  ? 
Some  had  not  seen  Him.  Would  He  not  come  again  to 
convince  them  ?  He  had  spoken  sometimes  of  being  with 
them  always.  When  would  He  come  again.  If  He  were 
really  and  truly  alive  from  the  dead.  He  must.  He  will 
come  back  to  them.  They  are  his  disciples.  They  are 
his  friends.  They  are  his  chosen  employes.  They  love 
Him.  They  believe  in  Him.  They  are  ready  to  serve 
Him.     He  will  return  to  them  if  he  is  a  living  man. 

Is  it  possible  to  exaggerate  the  effect  of  this  blank 
space  of  time,  in  fixing  and  defining  the  impressions  re- 
ceived through  his  visits  ?  Each  day  his  majesty  rises 
and  towers  like  a  stately  wall  before  their  minds.  How 
clear,  perhaps  painfully  clear,  it  becomes  to  them  that 
they  can  see  only  a  little  of  his  purposes  and  prepara- 
tions. If  He  is  living,  then  He  is  occupied  with  affairs 
far  above  their  grasp.  The  wisdom  to  plan  and  the  force 
to  execute  are  not  theirs,  not  dependent  upon  them. 
Their  isolation  and  weakness,  apart  from  Him,  become 
drearily  sensible.    Thus  by  degrees,  with  hard  but  neces- 


46  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

sary  discipline,  the  truth  is  pressed  upon  their  attention 
and  made  familiar  to  their  thought,  that  He  is  indepen- 
dent of  them,  while  they  depend  on  Him ;  that  He  lias 
charge  of  affairs  vaguely  great,  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
and  the  Kingdom  of  Israel,  while  they  are  helplessly  and 
unwittingly .  waiting  for  Him  ;  that  He  who  is  greater 
than  death  must  be  greater  than  the  necessities  of  com- 
mon life  ;  that  He  so  near,  so  far,  so  close,  so  lofty,  so 
incomprehensible  in  his  self-existence  must  partake  of  the 
very  being  of  the  self-existent  God. 

The  third  day  of  that  week  came  round.  They  may 
have  counted  that  there  were  only  about  forty  hours  from 
the  spear-thrust  on  Golgotha  to  the  meeting  with  Peter, 
—  only  about  fifty  hours  to  the  benediction  in  their  as- 
sembly. But  now  another  forty  and  fifty  hours  have 
passed  and  He  does  not  show  himself.  The  monotonous 
vacancy  continues.  On  the  fifth  day  of  his  absence  there 
is  a  Holy  Convention  in  the  temple,  but  He  does  not  at- 
tend. On  the  sixth  day,  the  regular  Sabbath  arrives. 
Will  He  honor  this  day  by  his  presence  ?  He  does  not 
come.  It  is  as  vacant  as  the  rest.  The  risen  Lord  will 
not  distinguish  it.  The  disciples  still  cannot  find  Him  ! 
The  strain  is  kept  upon  them  until  perhaps  they  can  bear 
it  no  longer,  until  at  least  the  perfect  moment  comes  that 
shall  fix  the  day  and  the  interval  forever  and  stamp  his 
title  on  the  weeks. 

Certainly  this  was  not  one  moment  too  soon.  It  can- 
not be  a  mistake  to  regard  this  six  days'  abstention  as  an 
ordeal  of  constantly  increasing  severity  to  the  disciples. 
All  their  hopes,  all  their  longings,  which  grew  so  much 
vaster  than  their  hopes,  rested  on  a  few  circumstances 
which  Thomas  and  others  denied,  and  which  the  rest 
hardly  dared  affirm.  If  this  were  all  they  should  see  of 
their  risen  Lord  what  would  it  all  avail  ?  Where  was  his 
expected  glory  ?      Where  was  the  promised  kingdom  ? 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY.       47 

Where  was  their  own  personal  hope  of  a  place  in  that 
kingdom.  Every  clay's  blank  inaction  mocked  their  hope 
and  tended  to  unsettle  their  confidence  in  the  verity  of 
the  resurrection  itself.  The  few  hours,  or,  it  may  be,  the 
hour.  He  had  spent  with  them,  grew  dimmer  to  the  rea- 
son, and  became  more  and  more  like  a  dream  or  a  hallu- 
cination.    Hope  and  longing  sickened  —  starved. 

But  the  ordeal  was  not  prolonged  one  moment  be- 
yond the  perfect  interval.  On  the  octave  of  the  resur- 
rection day,  the  Lord  revisited  them.  His  familiar  voice 
gave  the  salutation  "  Peace."  By  bodily,  physical  proof, 
He  again  convinced  doubters  and  confirmed  believers. 
And  this  second  appearance,  on  the  eighth  day  of  the 
new  era,  must  have  wrought  on  his  followers  some  new 
impressions.  They  would  now  feel  that  his  absence  im- 
plied his  return  ;  that,  as  he  returned  on  the  resurrec- 
tion octave,  they  might  expect  Him  again  on  the  next 
octave  ;  that  his  act  in  thus  emphasizing  the  week,  in 
view  of  its  traditional  meaning  and  august  associations, 
harmonized  with  that  divine  majesty  which  they  in  greater 
awe  now  reverenced  in  Him ;  and  that  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  which  had  its  own  types  and  analogues  in  the 
law,  was  chosen  by  Him  as  the  first  step  of  his  progress 
toward  his  full  regnal  habilitation.  This  first  step  from 
Sunday  to  Sunday,  making  the  week  his  measure  as  it  had 
been  his  Father's  measure,  may  well  have  helped  ^ ,  ,^^  „^ 
Thomas  to  raise  that  adoring  cry,  "  My  Lord 
and  My  God." 

Four  more  Sundays  passed  before  the  ascension.     Did 
our  Lord  appear  on  any  or  all  of  them  ?     The  Scriptures 
are  silent.     We  do  not  know.     He  did  appear  ^^^^  ^^ 
again  at  least  four  times  :  once  to  five  apostles ;  i-i*^  ^^ 
once  to  five  hundred  disciples,  beside  the  apos-  ^^^^^  ^7. 
ties ;  once  to  James  ;  and  once  to  all  the  apos-  I'j-,^^  ^^ .  ^ 
ties.     Paul,  in  mentioning  this  last   interview  icor.  i5:7. 


48  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

with  all  the  apostles,  may  have  referred  to  the  ascension, 
which,  of  course,  did  not  occur  on  a  Sunda}^  On  the 
other  hand,  the  meeting  with  the  live  hundred  noted 
by  Paul,  and  the  meeting  with  the  eleven  in  Galilee, 
recorded  by  Matthew,  may  have  been  two  separate  oc- 
casions. Nowhere  is  it  stated  how  many  times  the 
Lord  showed  himself.  In  Paul's  list  the  lake-side  inter- 
view is  omitted.  There  may  have  been  others,  nowhere 
recorded.  While  plainly  intimating  that  his  appear- 
ances were  few,  the  records  show  that  He  may  have 
appeared  on  every  Sunday.  Some  reasons  have  been  al- 
ready advanced  which  may  account  for  the  silence  of 
the  Scriptures  on  this  point.  Special  studies  of  the  week 
and  of  the  law  may  illuminate  this  silence ;  and  mani- 
festly, in  the  establishment  of  the  Lord's  Day  as  an  in- 
stitution, at  a  time  when  the  developing  church  was  di- 
rectly influenced  by  the  actual  words  and  bodily  presence 
of  the  Lord,  there  is  proof  tliat  He  allowed  his  disciples 
to  get  no  impression  incongruous  with  its  observance. 
The  resurrection  day,  the  resurrection  week,  and  the 
resurrection  octave,  —  the  first  succeeding  Lord's  Day,  — 
began  a  series,  which,  in  fact,  has  shown  enduring  vi- 
tality. 

The  disciples  would  naturally  expect  to  see  their  Lord 
again  one  week  after  the  second  meeting.    They 

Matt.  28 :  °  .  .  .  *^ 

10.  had   been  instructed   to  go  into   Galilee.     On 

John  21:  1.       ,  .      „         ...  .  ,  °  ,  ,0111 

this  familiar  ground,  perhaps,  when  the  Sabbath 
was  over  at  sunset,  the  five  may  have  felt  called  to  pro- 
vide for  the  general  wants  by  betaking  themselves  to 
their  old  occupation.  They  toiled  all  night  without  suc- 
cess. Sunday  morning  dawned.  The  Lord  had  twice 
visited  them  in  the  late  afternoon  at  the  meal  which 
closed  the  day.  They  thought  only  of  seeing  Him  at 
the  same  time  of  the  day,  and  when  a  voice  on  the  shore 
called  to  them  out  of  the  morning's  gray,  they  did  not 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.        49 

recognize  it.  But  He  had  special  treatment  for  some  or 
all  of  these  five,  and  so  He  met  them  unexpectedly.  He 
may  or  He  may  not  have  met  the  full  company  as  usual 
later  in  the  day.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  He  did 
not,  because  the  nari-atives  imply  that  his  appearances 
were  not  many.  It  must  be  noted  that  the  passage  in 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians,  while  specific 
as  to  persons,  is  entirely  vague  as  to  time.^  In  the  Greek, 
the  verb  is  always  in  the  aorist  or  indefinite  tense.  If 
Paul  had  in  his  mind  the  thought  of  three  classes  of  in- 
terviews,—  one  with  individuals,  one  with  the  apostolic 
college,  one  with  the  whole  believing  brotherhood,  and 
wished  to  state,  as  evidence  of  the  resurrection,  that 
during  forty  days  Jesus  held  these  three  classes  of  in- 
terviews, —  his  language  would  properly  answer  to  that 
thought.  It  may  be  paraphrased  thus :  "  He  showed 
himself  to  Peter  first,  and  then  to  James  individually. 
Then,  too,  He  met  the  apostles  from  time  to  time.  Then, 
too.  He  was  seen  (once  or  oftener)  by  the  whole  body  of 
disciples,  numbering  more  than  five  hundred.  Finally 
He  was  with  all  the  apostles  at  an  interview,  or  series  of 
interviews,  closed  by  his  ascension  from  their  midst." 

All  these  considerations  may  be  said  to  warrant  the 
following  assertions :  — 

1.  The  conduct  of  our  Lord  after  the  resurrection  would 
naturally  lead  his  disciples  to  expect  that  he  would  con- 
tinue to  visit  them  on  the  first  day  of  each  week. 

2.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Scripture  inconsistent  with 
or  unfavorable  to  the  belief  that  He  did  so  visit  them. 

^  The  i^Ta  and  eireira,  like  our  "  then,"  may  indicate  succession  in 
time  or  in  thought.  By  Peter  unquestionably,  He  was  seen  first,  and 
by  Paul  last  abnormally,  after  the  forty  days  had  passed.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  that  the  other  interviews  are  named  in  order  of 
occurrence.  If  this  were  so,  it  seems  incredible  that  the  mountain  of 
Matthew  and  the  lake-side  of  John  could  have  been  omitted. 
4 


60         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

3.  Whether  or  not  He  did  see  them  every  Sunda}',  the 
return  of  each  Sunday  continued  to  be  in  some  way  as- 
sociated with  Him,  and  nothing  was  permitted  to  occur 
that  should  weaken  this  association. 

There  is  recorded  one  later  event  which  must  have 
been  second  only  to  the  resurrection  in  its  importance 
both  as  an  epoch  in  the  Church's  history,  and  as  an  im- 
pulse to  the  perpetual  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day. 
Pentecost  had  a  peculiar  character  among  Jewish  anni- 
versaries. Moreover,  its  peculiarities  seem  to  find  their 
antitype  in  the  Lord's  Day  of  the  Church.  But  the  dis- 
cussion of  them  belongs  to  another  study.  It  is  doubted 
by  some,  whether  the  seven  weeks  were  to  be  counted  from 
the  Sabbath  which  fell  in  the  passover  week,  or  from  the 
first  day  of  unleavened  bread  which  was  treated 
'  '  as  a  Sabbath.  But  this  year  the  first  day  of 
unleavened  bread  was  a  Sabbath,  and  the  Pentecost  cer- 
tainly fell  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  On  this  day, 
full  of  traditional  solemnity,  and  the  seventh  Sunday 
since  the  resurrection,  the  besrinnins  of  the  oc- 

Acts  1 :  15.  ...  ^       . 

tave  week,  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem,  in  num- 
ber one  hundred  and  twenty  men  and  women,  met  "  with 
one  accord."  They  did  not  gather  for  the  cele- 
bration  of  the  festival,  for  the  public  services 
were  at  the  temple,  and  the  family  feasts  would  not  be 
sjDread  until  the  late  afternoon.  Their  "  one  accord  " 
was  "  for  prayer  and  supplication.  The  striking  Greek 
word  homothumad6n  ^  Qofxo6vixaS6v')  means,  witli  the  same 
heart-impulse.  In  every  one  of  their  hearts  the  same 
fact,  or  experience,  stirred  them  at  the  same  time,  in 
the  same  direction.  We  are  not  authorized  to  presume 
that  it  was  such  a  meeting  as  occurred  every  day.     The 

1  There  is  another  dfxodvtiaSSv  in  Acts  i.  14.  It  is  a  coincidence 
that  tlierc  was  also  another  Lord's  Day  after  the  Ascension  and  be- 
fore Pentecost. 


THE   ORIGINATION  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY.        51 

circumstances  which,  after  this,  obliged  and  enabled 
them  to  devote  every  day  to  evangelization,  did  not  j^et 
exist.  Doubtless  they  had  to  provide  their  living  by  daily 
work.  That  some  unrecorded  monition  from  Heaven,  or 
charge  left  them  by  their  Lord,  induced  them  to  hold 
this  meeting,  is  not  impossible,  nor  is  it  in  the  least  prob- 
able. The  known  fact  sufficiently  accounts  for  every- 
thing. It  was  that  day  of  the  week  on  which  He  had 
risen,  and  on  which  He  had  revisited  them  after  a  whole 
week's  absence.  Moreover,  this  was  the  seventh  return 
of  that  same  first  day  of  the  week  so  marked  by  Him. 
To  their  Jewish  minds  there  was  a  deep  significance  in 
this  reduplication,  aud  uot  improbably  a  vague  appre- 
hension of  correspondences  between  the  law  and  tradi- 
tion of  this  unique  observance  of  their  nation  and  their 
own  circumstances  as  a  body.  Such  facts  in  both  mind 
and  heart  could  not  fail  to  impel  them  to  the  general 
gathering  of  this  day.  And  so  this  general  assembly  on 
the  seventh  return  of  the  Lord's  Day  experienced  the 
formal  inauguration  of  the  church's  career,  by  Him  who 
has  been  ever  since  her  special  Director  therein.  He,  the 
church's  Teacher  and  Inspirer,  b}^  thus  taking  this  seven- 
fold Lord's  Day  for  the  day  of  his  manifestation,  sealed 
to  the  Church  that  custom  of  observing  it,  which  the 
action  of  the  Lord  had,  established. 

Probably  the  Lord's  Day  would  have  been  more  prom- 
inent among  the  incidents  related  of  the  Early  Church  if 
Jerusalem  had  been  an  ordinary  city.  For  if  the  early 
converts  had  been  largely  resident  merchants  and  arti- 
sans, they  might  not  have  been  able  to  maintain  daily 
assembling  and  evangelizing.  In  that  case,  the  weekly 
congregation  would  necessarily  have  become  nwre  con- 
spicuous. But  in  fact  Jerusalem  could  have  had  scarcely 
any  trade  beyond  its  own  supplies.  It  seems  to  have 
lived,  like  some  other  capitals  and  bournes  of  pilgrimage, 


52         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

off  its  visitors.  The  early  converts  belonged  to  all  parts 
of  the  Roman  empire  and  beyond  it.  Such  persons,  dur- 
ing their  stay,  would  be  led,  by  their  fervor,  to  throng  the 
daily  assembly.  Resident  believers  would  have  more  lei- 
sure than  citizens  of  busy  connnercial  marts  could  com- 
mand, and  would  warmly  join  with  their  relatives  and 
guests.  The  apostles,  aware  that  very  many  of  the  new 
adherents  could  remain  with  them  for  only  a  short  time, 
would  use  every  precious  moment  for  fellowship  and  in- 
struction. Thus  the  narrative  seems  to  imply  that,  so 
far  as  religious  meetings  were  concerned,  the  Lord's  Day 
could  hardly  have  been  distinguished  from  other  days, 
since  every  day  was  full.  But  when  the  Church  had 
spread  to  other  points,  devoid  of  the  extraordinary  char, 
acter  of  Jerusalem  society,  the  references  to  the  Lord's 
Day  are  such  as  coincide  precisely  with  the  ideal  which 
the  Church  in  all  ages  has  preserved. 

On  his  second  missionary  journey  Paul  planted  a 
church  in  Corinth.  A  year  or  two  later,  while  in  Ephe- 
sus,  he  wrote  the  first  epistle  to  that  church.  Three  of 
1  Cor.  16-  it^  members  had  visited  him,  and  pi'obably  had 
•^''  asked  for  instruction,  among  other  matters,  on 

the  method  of  collecting  the  church's  benevolent  of- 
ferings. Paul  directed  them  to  make  their  contribution 
1  Cor.  16 :  weekly  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  There  is 
•^'^'  a  possible  ambiguity  in  the  words  "  lay  by  him 

in  store."  This  "  store  "  may  be  an  aggregate  in  each 
man's  own  hands,  or  a  common  store  in  the  hands  of  the 
ofiicers  of  the  church.  But  if  each  man  kept  his  own, 
the  elders  or  the  apostles  must  needs  collect  when  the  sum 
was  to  be  sent  off.  This  would  be  directly  against  Paul's 
provision,  "  that  there  be  no  gatherings,"  that  no  collec- 
tions be  made  (R.  V.),  "  when  I  come."  The  practical 
disadvantages  of  asking  men  to  keep  their  gifts  until 
called  for,  instead  of  receiving  them  when  offered,  are  so 


THE   ORIGINATION   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.       bo 

evident,  tliat  one  need  not  doubt  whether  a  clear-headed 
man  like  tlie  great  apostle  could  make  such  a  blunder  in 
Galatia  and  repeat  it  in  Corinth.  There  is  no  reasonable 
doubt  that  in  this  passage  a  regular  general  assembly  of 
the  Church  is  taken  for  granted,  and  that  the  collection  is 
recommended  as  a  regular  feature  of  that  assembly.^ 

On  the  return  from  the  third  tour  Paul  came  to  Troas. 
The  vessel  in  which  he  sailed  from  Philippi*  had 
lagged  five  days  on  the  way,  arriving  at  last  on 
the  second  day  of  the  week,  our  Monday.  Paul  had 
stimulating  recollections  of  Troas.  It  was  probably  an 
important  church  centre  just  then,  since  seven  of  the 
apostle's  companions  were  sent  there  in  advance.  When 
Paul  met  the  whole  Church  there  in  its  assembly,  he  was 
so  moved  that  he  preached  until  midnight,  and  then,  after 
tlie  accident  to  Eutychus,  continued  the  services  connected 
with  "  the  breaking  of  bread  "  until  day  dawned.  It  lies 
certainly  on  the  face  of  the  narrative,  that  Paul  "  abode 
there  seven  days  "  in  order  to  attend  their  full  meeting  on 
Sunda}"-,  having  lost  the  previous  Sunday's  meeting  by 
being  detained  two  or  three  days  longer  than  Actsi6:ii, 
usual  on  the  voyage.  So  here  we  find  the  ^^■ 
Lord's  Day  the  occasion  when  the  Church  once  in  seven 
days  comes  together  in  general  assembly,  with  preaching, 
and  with  sacramental  breaking  of  bread. 

In  the  various  books  of  the  New  Testament,  a  number 
of  passages  refer  to  the  meetings  of  Christians,  but  only 
those  already  discussed  connect  these  meetings  explicitly 
with  the  Lord's  Day.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  Divine 
Inspirer  of  the  Scriptures  had  permitted  only  these  few 

^  The  passage  2  Cor.  ix.  6  indicates  that  Paul  expected  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Church,  apparently  the  brethren  to  whom  he  had 
spoken  personally  about  it,  namely,  Stephanus,  Fortunatus,  and 
Achaiciis  (1  Cor.  xvi.  17),  themselves  to  hold  the  church's  bounty 
all  ready  in  their  own  hands. 


54         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

glimpses  to  appear  in  this  part  of  the  Sacred  Canon,  in 
order  that  at  the  proper  time  men  might  see  that  while 
the  day  miglit  in  them  be  traced  to  a  distinct  source,  the 
true  conception  of  its  character  was  to  be  drawn  from  a 
larger  view.  These  glimpses  are  sufficient,  but  no  more 
than  sufficient.  They  present  before  us  the  first  week 
of  the  new  era,  showing  how  our  Lord  emphasized  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  not  only  by  his  resurrection  and 
his  visit  to  his  disciples,  but  also  by  his  abstention  from 
them  until  tlie  next  first  day.  Tiien  the  seventh  return 
of  the  first  day  is  presented,  showing  by  visible  manifes- 
tation the  entry  of  the  Divine  Being  upon  a  new  disci- 
pline of  mankind  through  the  Church.  Then,  after  about 
twenty  years,  a  view  is  presented  of  a  European  church 
holding  its  regular  assemblies  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  and,  by  apostolic  direction,  regularly  gathering  the 
alms  of  its  members  on  that  day.  After  perhaps  another 
year,  there  is  a  view  of  a  church  in  Asia  Minor  likewise 
assembling  regularly  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  for 
preaching  and  the  Eucharistic  Supper,  while  an  apostle, 
whose  tardy  vessel  brought  him  into  their  harbor  just  too 
late  for  one  of  these  meetings,  tarried  a  week, 
though  "  pressed  for  time,"  in  order  to  attend 
the  next. 

Five  and  twenty  years,  perhaps,  later,  a  scene  ap- 
pears in  whose  foreground  is  an  aged  apostle,  the  last 
survivor  of  the  original  college,  refreshing  his  solitude 
at  Patmos,  by  lofty  communings  with  Heaven  on  the 
Lord's  Day.  Li  the  distance  is  a  circle  of  churches  to 
whom  the  divine  messages  and  the  Apocalypse  are  being 
transmitted,  who  also  have  learned  the  expressiveness  of 
this  short  title  for  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  under- 
stand the  appropriateness  to  the  Lord's  Day  of  peculiar 
religious  privileges  and  enjoyments  in  the  special  and 
'  spiritual  "  worship  of  the  Lord. 


THE    ORIGINATION  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY.       55 

Within  the  next  half  century,  Pliny  and  Justin  — 
heathen  and  Christian,  persecutor  and  martyr  —  wrote, 
with  many  others,  their  testimony  to  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  Day  by  Christians  in  general,  —  and  the  sec- 
ular history  of  the  day  begins. 


STUDY  III. 

TELE   "SVEEK. 
"And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it."  —  Gex.  ii.  3. 

The  five  glimpses  of  the  Apostolic  Lord's  Day  are  pre- 
sented in  the  New  Testament  incidentally.  If  the  obser- 
vance had  ceased  with  that  generation,  and  had  never 
been  known  to  secular  history,  no  one  probably,  in  this 
age,  would  be  able  from  the  New  Testament  notices  alone 
to  conceive  of  it.  But  it  has  not  ceased.  Those  few  no- 
tices are  to  be  read  with  the  illustrations  which  eighteen 
centuries  of  Christian  faith  have  placed  beside  them. 
The  experiences  of  the  true  Church,  in  which  these  illus- 
trations consist,  are  the  discipline  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
thei-efore  fitted  to  explain  his  word.  Since  He  has  led 
the  Church  to  maintain  the  Lord's  Day  as  a  loyal  festival 
with  assemblies  for  worshiping  the  Lord,  He  must  also 
have  controlled  its  establishment.  These  few  notices, 
therefore,  give  us  glimpses  of  his  early  leading.  By  its 
homogeneity  the  history  of  the  day  proves  that  it  is,  and 
from  the  first  has  been,  under  his  superintendence. 

The  mind  indeed  seeks  for  some  word  of  direct  institu- 
tion, of  explicit  authorization.  But  since  none  is  found, 
it  must  be  that  none  was  needed.  If  it  was  not  directly 
instituted  or  explicitly  authorized,  it  must  have  grown  out 
from  something  already  existing,  something  already  en- 
dowed with  prerogative.  May  there  not  be  some  older 
institution,  some  larger  ordinance,  some  permanent,  pre- 
cise, acknowledged  fact,  unnoticed,  perhaps,  because  its 


THE    WEEK.  57 

magnitude  and  grandeur  are  so  familiar,  —  which  yet 
may  be  the  foundation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  resting  deep 
down  on  the  bedrock  of  primeval  humanity  ? 

One  thing  is  certain  :  Christianity  inherited  all  the 
past  relations  between  God  and  believing  men.  There  is 
a  unity  in  the  development  of  that  which,  in  the  largest 
sense,  we  call  the  True  Church.  The  New  Testament 
emphatically  declares  that  it  is  one  wdth  the 

Ech  2 :  20 

old.     The  foundation  is  by  prophets  and  apos- 
tles, coordinate.     The  law  and  the  prophets  witness  to 
the  righteousness  which  is  b}^  faith  of  Him,  who  j^^^^  g.oj 
said  that  He  came  to  fulfil  them.     Christians  jj^^t  5.17 
are  the  legal  children  of  Abraham.     They  are 
not  a  totally  new  and  distinct  product  of  divine 
grace,  but  are  "grafted"  into  the  old  stock.   Rom.  11 : 
From  the  day  of  the  first  promise,  given  in  ■^''-*- 
Eden,  the  same  spiritual  sap  which  now  nourishes  it  has 
flowed  in  every  age,  through  substantially  the  same  ma- 
turing body  of  the  faithful. 

With  the  more  ancient  history,  every  one  of  the  evan- 
gelists has  connected  the  Lord's  Day  by  the  statement 
so  carefully  recorded,  that  the  Lord  rose  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week.  This  is  the  only  statement  which  can 
be  said  to  bear  directly,  and  not  merely  incideirtally, 
upon  the  origination  of  the  Lord's  Day.  Evidently  the 
Spirit  of  Wisdom  has  restrained  other  utterances.  But 
He  has  caused  this  statement  to  be  reiterated  five  times, 
—  six  times  indeed,  if  the  last  paragraph  of  Mark  is  re- 
ceived. The  Church  took  up  the  succession  of  the  weeks 
just  as  it  had  come  down  the  ages.  She  still  maintains 
it  perfect  and  unbroken.  Evidently  both  evangelists  and 
apostles  expected  that  the  week  would  continue.  Per- 
haps they  could  not  explain  the  reason,  yet  they  plainly 
felt  that  its  significance  and  prestige  ought  to  insure  its 
persistence. 


58         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

What  then  is  the  week  ?  First  of  all  it  must  be  dis- 
tinguished from  a  week.  A  week  is  a  period  of  seven 
successive  days.  Tropically  it  may  mean  any  period 
composed  of  seven  equal  successive  times,  a  week  of 
weeks,  or  of  months,  or  of  years.  It  is  used  also  (rarely) 
for  small  divisions  of  the  month,  whether  of  seven  days 
or  not.  But  the  week  is  the  regular  series  of  a  particu- 
lar set  of  seven  days.  There  is  a  fixed  beginning  and 
ending  for  each  member  of  this  series.  It  is  therefore 
comparable  with  the  succession  of  the  months  and  years. 
It  is  defined  in  four  particulars  by  its  contrast  with  those 
periods. 

I.  The  succession  of  the  weeks  is  invariable  and  un- 
broken. No  other  time  period  larger  than  the  day  in 
common  use  has  been  without  occasional  hiatus,  variation, 
or  adjustment.  Such  modifications  are  required  in  order 
that  any  recurring  number  of  days  should  coincide  with 
recurring  lunar  or  solar  phases.  Neither  a  month  nor  a 
year  can  be  broken  into  weeks  without  a  remainder.  In- 
deed, neither  the  lunation  nor  the  solar  year  consists  of 
an  integral  number  of  days.  They  cannot  therefore  be 
accurately  divided  into  equal  parts  consisting  of  days. 
We  do  not  attempt  to  have  our  months  and  years  corre- 
spond precisely  with  the  time  of  sun  and  moon.  They 
vary,  but  their  inequality  is  known,  and  so  far  conve- 
nient. Accuracy  with  them  would  bring  intolerable  an- 
noyance.    But  the  week  recurs  with  invariable  accuracy. 

This  characteristic  of  the  week  distinguishes  it  from 
not  only  months  and  years,  but  also  smaller  time  meas- 
ure. Mr.  George  Smith,  about  a  score  of  years  ago, 
found  among  the  Assyrian  remains  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum a  calendar  of  ancient  Nineveh.  In  it  the  months 
were  lunations,  and  consequently  of  twenty -nine  and 
thirty  days  alternately.  The  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty- 
first,  and  twenty-eighth  days  of  each  month  were  noted  as 


THE    WEEK.  59 

vacant  days  on  which  no  business  should  be  done.  Here 
certainly  were  weeks.  But  they  were  not  invariable 
weeks  like  ours.  One  out  of  every  four  consisted  of 
eight  or  nine  days  instead  of  seven.  The  series  was 
broken  off  and  begun  anew  every  month.  The  week 
known  to  us  and  to  the  Scriptures  is  independent  of  the 
months.  If  its  beginning  or  end  should  coincide  with 
the  beginning  or  end  of  a  month,  that  is  accidental.  The 
week  is  never  stretched  or  compressed  for  any  purpose. 
Its  succession  has  never  been  known  to  be  broken  or 
modified. 1 

The  Nundine  of  the  Romans  was  a  time  division, 
widely  known  and  long  in  use.  The  word  (Latin  nun- 
dinum^  means  a  period  of  nine  days.  These  nine  days 
consisted  of  two  market  days,  with  seven  daj^s  interven- 
ing. According  to  our  English  idiom,  we  should  say 
that  the  nundine  consisted  of  eight  days,  every  eighth 
day  being  the  market  day.  These  nundines  ran  on, 
without  regard  to  the  months,  in  regular  succession.  But 
the  series  never  went  through  a  whole  year.  There  was 
a  sentiment,  it  is  said,  that  the  market  should  not  be  held 
on  any  day  sacred  to  a  religious  festival.  Therefore,  at 
the  beginning  of  each  year,  a  certain  college  of  priests 
were  charged  to  examine  the  calendar.  After  ascertain- 
ing when  the  festivals  would  occur,  they  would  select 
such  a  starting-point  for  the  nundines  as  would  carry  the 
markets  clear  of  any  interference.  The  space  between 
the  last  nundine  of  one  year  and  the  first  of  the  follow- 
ing year  would,  therefore,  be  longer  or  shorter,  according 
to  circumstances.  The  series  never  continued  from  year 
to  3'ear.  Unlike  the  week,  it  had  no  invariable,  un- 
broken, independent  succession,  but  was  contingent  upon 
other  features  of  the  year. 

^  Assyrian  Discoveries,  by  George  Smith,  Ep.  Conon.  Chal.  Gen. 
etc.;  Lenormant,  Beginnings  of  History,  p.  414,  Am.  ed. 


60        EIGHT  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Some  nations  have  had  ten-day  periods,  and  some,  also, 
five-day  periods,  in  more  or  less  use.  But  such  periods 
were,  strictly,  subdivisions  of  the  month.  They  were 
subject  to  modification  whenever  the  month  was  varied. 
Their  series  was  never  invariable  and  unbroken.  In- 
deed, it  does  not  appear  that  it  was  ever  used  or  regarded 
as  a  series.  There  is,  then,  so  far  as  the  history  of  man 
is  yet  known,  no  record  of  any  time  period  believed  to 
be  invariable,  other  than  the  week.  No  other  like  pe- 
riod seems  ever  to  have  been  intended  for  regular  suc- 
cession or  adapted  to  such  use.  No  men  thought  of  pre- 
serving such  a  sequence  as  a  matter  of  importance,  much 
less  as  a  matter  of  duty,  except  men  to  whom  the  God  of 
the  Bible  was  known.  For  thousands  of  years  this  se- 
quence has  been  perfectly  maintained.  There  are  good 
reasons  for  believing  that  its  integrity  has  continued  from 
the  remotest  age.  But  no  other  time  period,  or  system 
of  time  periods  in  actual  use,  has  continued  through  any 
considerable  recurrence,  without  variation.  One  in  four 
of  our  years  is  varied.  Our  months  differ  still  more. 
Uncertainty  concernincr  the  length  and  succession  of 
years  is  a  great  obstacle  to  the  study  of  ancient  chronol- 
ogy. The  lunar  calendar,  which  the  Mohammedan  world 
still  follows,  begins  each  month  and  each  year  with  a  new 
moon.  Its  months,  therefore,  have  twenty-nine  and 
thirty  days  alternately.  But  once  in  seventeen  months 
another  day  must  be  inserted,  in  order  to  keep  the  first  of 
the  month  in  accord  with  the  first  of  the  moon.  Then 
the  series  of  twenty-nines  and  thirties  is  broken  off,  two 
thirties  come  together,  and  a  new  series  of  twenty-nines 
and  thirties  is  begun. 

These  facts  invest  the  week  with  venerable  and  singu- 
lar dignity.  Of  all  the  time  periods,  large  or  small,  into 
which  men  have  been  wont  to  group  their  days,  this  one 
alone  has  come  down  from  inscrutable  antiquity,  with  no 


THE    WEEK.  61 

variation  or  the  slightest  irregularity.  Lunations,^  years, 
centuries,  and  all  the  cycles  of  cosmic  time,  go  on,  it  is 
true,  with  unswerving  precision.  But  man's  perception 
of  the  termini  of  these  periods  is  necessarily  imperfect. 
The  rotation  of  his  planetary  home  does  not  coincide 
with  the  grander  rounds  marked  by  the  bodies  in  his 
sky.  The  conditions  of  his  activity  are,  in  many  ways, 
controlled  by  the  phases  of  sun  and  moon.  But  in  reck- 
oning time  he  has  never  been  able  to  count  his  months 
or  years  from  the  moment  when  the  solar  or  lunar  course 
is  completed.  Each  year  is  distinct,  each  month  is  indi- 
vidualized, but  the  exact  boundaries  of  each  are  confused 
and  imperceptible.  A  day  that  is  the  ordinary  alterna- 
tion of  darkness  and  light  is  fixed  ^  in  nature  as  the 
world's  time  unit.  Months  and  years,  even  now,  are 
thought  of  as  rather  vaguely  containing  about  so  many 
days.  For  many  social  and  business  purposes  a  theoret- 
ical month  of  thirty  and  year  of  three  hundred  sixty  days 
are  still  used.  But  the  day  is  never  conceived  as  the 
exact  fraction  of  a  month  or  year.  It  is,  therefore,  true 
that  the  week  is  the  largest  multiple  of  the  day  which 

1  A  lunation  consists  of  29  days,  12  hours,  44  min.,  2  -^^  sec,  or 
decimally,  29.53058872  days.  Hence,  17  lunations  =  very  nearly 
502  days  (502.02000824)  =  9  X  30  -f-  8  X  29.  If  the  first  month 
have  29  days,  the  second  30  days,  and  so  on,  then  the  17th  must 
have  30  as  well  as  the  16th.  Then  the  18th  month  of  29  days  and 
the  19th  of  30  days  may  begin  a  new  series  of  17  months. 

'  The  idea  of  regular  and  invariable  succession  belongs  to  the 
■whole  day,  including  night.  In  high  latitudes,  as  daylight  grows 
longer  or  shorter,  darkness  correspondingly  grows  shorter  or  longer, 
so  that  no  difference  in  the  length  of  the  whole  alternation  is  noticed. 
The  time  for  beginning  our  legal  day,  midnight,  is,  of  course,  arbi- 
trarily fixed  for  convenience.  The  poinilar  mind  is  just  beginning 
to  entertain  ideas  of  an  international,  intercontinental,  and  even 
terrene  datum  for  the  conventional  or  legal  day.  Observe  that  the 
feeblest  minded  races  are  perfectly  able  to  grasp  the  idea  of  a  seven- 
day  period. 


62  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

mankind  have  ever  been  able  to  use.  This  dignity  of 
the  week  unquestionably  must  have  been  very  deeply  im- 
pressed on  the  early  disciples.  The  precision  in  measur- 
ing time,  to  which  all  in  this  day  ai'e  accustomed,  could 
not  have  been  comprehended  by  Peter  and  his  associates. 
To  them  the  count  of  years  and  the  progress  of  months 
was  far  more  vague  than  to  us,  who  carry  watches  and 
read  daily  journals.  To  them,  therefore,  even  more  than 
to  us,  the  week  must  have  been  the  standard  and  the 
ideal  of  an  invariable  period  and  of  unfluctuating  recur- 
rence. 

II.  In  the  second  place,  the  week  is  an  arbitrary  pe- 
riod —  the  only  entirely  arbitrary  period  known  to  human 
use.  By  this  phrase,  "  arbitrary  period,"  is  meant  a 
measure  of  time  dependent  upon  no  natural  phenomena, 
and  brought  into  use  or  kept  in  use  by  authority  alone. 
The  precise  legal  termini  of  all  time  measures  are,  of 
course,  arbitrary ;  but  all  the  other  time  measures  are 
related  to  visible  facts.  Thus  the  length  of  our  j^ear  is 
marked  by  the  sun.  The  law  merely  ordains  a  starting- 
point,  and  provides  that  the  legal  year  shall  not  vary  a 
whole  day  from  the  natural.  The  months  in  use  are  an 
approximation  to  an  aliquot  division  of  the  j'^ear.  Their 
number  represents  the  fact  that  there  are  twelve  luna- 
tions in  every  solar  year.  Their  irregularities  are  due  to 
the" adjustments  by  which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  the  sur- 
plus of  eleven  days  over  the  twelve  full  lunations  has 
been  distributed  among  them.  Among  the  JMoslems  the 
lunation  is  the  basis  of  their  calendar.  Instead  of  stretch- 
ing their  months  to  fill  out  the  year,  as  we  do,  they 
shorten  their  year  to  twelve  lunar  months.  But  neither 
our  months  nor  their  year  are  arbitrary  in  the  same  sense 
as  the  week.  Every  calendar  is,  of  course,  dependent 
upon  law,  or  upon  custom  which  carries  the  authority  of 
law.     In  regard  to  months  and  years,  however,  the  law 


THE   WEEK.  63 

simply  fixes,  for  public  convenience,  the  termini  of  pe- 
riods, which  nature  compels  us  to  observe  with  vague 
boundaries.  The  week  corresponds  with  no  time  mark 
in  the  sky.  Neither  sun,  nor  moon,  nor  any  star  sug- 
gests it  or  approximates  to  it.  Science  finds  some  traces, 
not  altogether  decisive,  of  hebdomadal  periodicity,  in  both 
the  normal  and  the  diseased  functions  of  physical  life. 
But  these  could  not  possibly  have  suggested  the  week. 
At  the  very  utmost  they  could  show,  if  proved  to  exist, 
only  that  the  week,  though  disconnected,  is  not  inharmo- 
nious with  nature. 

Here,  again,  the  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  a 
week,  that  is,  merely  a  group  of  seven  days,  without 
regular  recurrence,  and  the  ever  on-rolling  week  of  the 
ages.  It  might  be  granted,  —  since,  whether  true  or  not, 
it  does  not  concern  this  study,  —  that  there  may  be  facts 
in  nature  capable  of  suggesting  a  special  significance  in 
the  number  seven  as  applied  to  time.  No  doubt  seven 
prominent  celestial  bodies  were  very  early  distinguished. 
Perhaps,  also,  the  seven  chords  of  music.  If  no  other 
than  an  occasional  week  were  known,  and  no  better  rea- 
son could  be  found  for  the  existence  of  that,  its  suirsfes- 
tion  might  provisionally  be  referred  to  them.  But  since 
the  week  can  be  traced  farther  back  than  astronomy  or 
music,  such  conjectures  are  of  little  weight.  And  they 
have  no  relation,  in  any  case,  to  the  week  in  its  grand 
continuity.  Absolutely  nothing  has  been  found  in  the 
physical  world  to  show  why  any  body  of  men  should 
preserve  from  generation  to  generation,  and  from  age 
to  age,  the  invariable  and  unbroken  succession  of  the 
weeks. 

It  is  true  that  some  writers  have  endeavored  to  find 
the  origin  of  the  week  in  the  moon's  phases.  Thei-e  is, 
however,  no  historical  basis  for  such  a  theory.  Half  a 
lunar  month  is  very  nearly  fifteen,  not  fourteen  days.     A 


64         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

very  large  part,  if  not  all  of  the  ancient  heathen  world, 
divided  their  month  by  counting  five,  ten,  or  fifteen  days 
from  its  beginning.  The  people  who  had  weeks  in  com- 
mon use,  as  divisions  of  the  lunar  month,  are  yet  to  be 
heard  of.  Their  records  have  not  been  discovered.  The 
Ninevite  calendar  of  Mr.  Smith  is  no  exception.  In  this 
calendar  the  7th,  14th,  21st,  and  28th  were  noted  as  holi- 
days or  sacred  days.  The  first  division  of  each  month, 
therefore,  began  on  the  29th  of  the  preceding  month. 
But  it  is  not  credible  that  a  lunation  would  have  been  so 
divided  as  to  make  its  first  quarter  begin  while  the  old 
moon  was  still  visible  in  the  morning  sky,  one  or  two 
days  before  the  new  crescent  appeared.  If  a  subdivision 
of  the  lunar  month  had  been  intended,  the  first  quarter 
would  have  begun  with  the  new  moon.  The  days  noted 
would,  in  that  case,  have  been  the  1st,  8th,  15th,  and 
22d,  or  more  probably  the  1st,  8th,  16th,  and  23d. 
Among  all  nations  the  new  moon  has  been  the  most 
striking  and  impressive  of  lunar  phases.  This  calendar 
ignored  the  new  moon  in  order  to  embody  the  tradition 
of  a  sacred  seventh  day.  This  at  least  is  the  only  reason- 
able explanation  of  it  warranted  by  our  present  knowl- 
edge. It  is  as  if  the  men  who  used  this  calendar,  hav- 
ing come  to  adore  the  moon  and  other  celestial  bodies 
as  divinities  in  place  of  the  One  only  Creator  and  Lord, 
distorted  the  week  series  into  a  conformity  with  the 
lunations,  and  yet  so  vividly  remembered  the  religious 
associations  of  the  seventh  day  that  they  set  their  de- 
graded monthly  imitation  of  it  above  the  day  of  the 
new  moon.  But  whatever  argument  for  the  antiquity  of 
the  Sabbath  may  be  drawn  from  this  calendar,  it  cer- 
tainly bears  testimony  against  the  theory  that  the  week 
originated  in  observation  of  the  moon.  That  theory, 
however,  is  most  easily  tested  by  a  consideration  of  the 
facts  or  actions  which  it  implies.     Let  it  then  be  sup- 


THE    WEEK.  65 

posed,  that  away  back  in  some  primeval  age  a  man  of 
influence,  impressed  by  the  phenomena  of  the  moon's 
quartering,  resolves  that  his  community  shall  begin  to 
count  time  by  what  he  deems  the  period  of  that  quarter- 
ing, namely,  seven  days.  Having  secured  the  assent  of 
his  tribe,  he  selects  a  certain  day  for  the  inauguration 
of  the  new  system.  This  day  may  be  the  next  new 
moon.  All  are  carefully  instructed  to  begin  on  the  same 
day.  Having  now  introduced  the  series  of  weeks  out  of 
regard  to  the  moon's  changes,  chief  and  people  straight- 
way abandon  all  reference  to  the  moon,  and  keep  up  this 
count  by  sevens  without  the  slightest  further  attention 
to  the  phenomena  which  suggested  it.  Moreover,  the 
originator  of  this  hebdomadal  calendar  provides  means  for 
maintaining  a  correct  count,  and  for  pi-eventing  any  indi- 
vidual from  adding  or  losing  a  day.  For  this  purpose  it 
is  ordained  that  the  first  or  last  day  of  each  week,  one 
of  its  boundaries,  shall  be  a  market  day,  or  a  day  of  wor- 
ship, or  in  some  other  way  publicly  distinguished ;  or, 
the  calendar  is  put  in  charge  of  a  body  of  priests  or 
elders  or  other  officials.  All  are  so  captivated  with  this 
plan  that  successors  are  trained,  who  continue  it  indefi- 
nitely. By  the  theory,  the  only  motive  for  all  this  ex- 
penditui'e  of  energy,  ingenuity,  and  persistence,  is  the 
observation  of  the  moon's  quartering,  which  observation 
is  utterly  disregarded  from  the  moment  when  its  weekly 
celebration  is  begun  ! 

However  ridiculous  this  theory,  it  supposes  what  is, 
after  all,  wholly  an  arbitrary  introduction  of  the  week. 
The  authority  of  some  one  is  presumed  as  the  originat- 
ing and  maintaining  power.  But  for  that  authority  the 
supposed  series  of  weeks  would  have  been  broken  up 
and  dissipated  by  the  first  return  of  a  new  moon.  Since, 
therefore,  the  physical  world  has  nothing  by  which  to 
impress  such  a  series  of  periods  on  the  attention  of  men, 
6 


66         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

—  nothing  that  can  mark  the  regular  beginning  or  end- 
ing of  any  members  of  such  a  series,  nothing  which 
would  enable  men  to  recover  their  true  order  and  se- 
quence if  these  sliould  ever  be  lost, — and  since  the  series 
does  exist,  and  has  come  down  to  ns  from  the  dim  per- 
spective of  an  unmeasured  antiquity,  seemingly  without 
variation  or  intermission,  there  is  no  escape  from  the 
conclusion  that  the  week  was  instituted  by  personal  au- 
thority. It  has  not  come  from  the  physical,  yet  it  is. 
Therefore  it  must  have  come  from  the  spiritual,  from 
the  will.  It  is,  the  refore,in  the  sense  already  defined, 
an  arbitrary  period.  Whether  its  author  was  Moses  or 
some  One  earlier  than  Moses,  he  was  One  whose  prerog- 
ative is  plainly  certified  by  it.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  date  of  its  establishment,  it  was  as  distinct  in  its 
origin,  as  in  its  inflexible  regularity,  from  all  the  other 
combinations  of  days  used  by  man  to  measure  duration. 
Months  and  years  are  independent  of  human  notice. 
They  had  their  course  before  man  existed.  They  go  on 
whether  men  regard  them  or  not.  But  the  week  is 
wholly  dependent  on  man's  will.  If  men  cease  to  ob- 
serve it,  it  has  ceased  to  exist. 

III.  The  week,  therefore,  and  it  only,  is  a  religious 
period.  It  is  the  token  or  sign  of  a  certain  relation 
between  those  who  observe  it  and  the  authority  which 
has  instituted  it.  This  may  be  asserted  either  as  a  log- 
ical deduction  from  what  has  been  already  advanced,  or 
as  a  summary  of  the  historical  facts.  The  logical  chain 
may  be  stated  tlius  :  The  week  series  exists.  But  it  has 
no  relation  to  natural  phenomena.  Therefore  its  exist- 
ence must  be  due  to  an  arbitrary  act  of  some  personal 
will.  But  it  could  not  exist  as  a  continuous  series,  unless 
observed  and  counted  by  communities  and  through  gen- 
erations. Therefore  the  arbitrary  act  whicli  established 
it  must  have  been  intended  to  influence  communities  and 


THE    WEEK.  67 

generations.  Therefore,  also,  these  must  have  accepted 
that  act  and  submitted  to  its  influence.  But  the  im- 
position of  an  arbitrary  act  of  some  one  upon  a  com- 
munity, and  its  acceptance  by  the  community,  constitute 
a  tie  between  the  one  imposing  and  the  body  accepting. 
Therefore  the  use  and  practice  of  that  which  is  so  im- 
posed betokens  and  manifests  the  relation  of  authority 
and  loyal t3^  But  the  expression  of  a  tie  between  the 
community  of  mankind  and  a  supreme  authority  is  the 
root  idea  of  the  word  religion.  Therefore  the  week  ex- 
presses a  religious  authority  and  a  religious  loyalty.  Or- 
ganized human  society  counts  time  by  weeks  because 
it  recognizes  the  supreme  ^  authority  of  God. 

The  corresponding  argument  from  history  may  be 
summed  up  in  three  statements  :  — 

A.  The  week  has  been  used  by  no  communities  ex- 
cept such  as  have  professed  to  worshijD  the  one  supreme 
God. 

B.  The  week  has  a  divine  warrant  for  its  use,  in  that 
it  was  required  by  the  command  that  Israel  should  ob- 
serve the  Sabbath  ;  and  also,  in  that  its  continuance  was 
sanctioned  by  the  Divine  Head  and  the  inspired  founders 
of  the  Christian  Church. 

C.  The  week  has  its  origin  and  model  in  the  example 
of  God  himself,  who,  in  his  earliest  communication  to 
man,  represented  himself  as  beginning  the  count  of  mun- 
dane time  with  the  week. 

A.  Concerning  the  first  of  these  statements  it  should 
be  noted  that  Islam,  which  continues  our  week,  professes 
to  worship  our  God.    Polytheism,  however,  which  knows 

1  It  is  said  that  the  queue  was  imposed  on  the  Chinese  by  the  first 
Mantcliu  dynasty  as  a  test  of  loyalty  in  applicants  for  literary  de- 
grees or  for  office.  Its  use  is  still  therefore  a  symbol  or  manifesta- 
tion of  national  loyalty  to  their  emperors,  though  possibly  few  may 
think  of  its  signi6cance  in  these  days. 


68         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

nothing  of  our  week  in  its  unvarying  succession,  has 
some  knowledge  of  an  occasional  week.  Traces  of  such 
a  week  are  said  to  be  found  among  nations  so  far  apart 
as  the  Chinese  and  the  Peruvians.  They  ai'e  compar- 
atively luimerous  from  the  Ganges  to  the  Nile.  They 
usually,  perhaps  always,  appear  in  some  religious  con- 
nection, as  though  some  dim,  vague,  yet  persistent  tradi- 
tion maintained  in  all  minds  an  association  between 
divine  affairs  and  the  period  of  seven  days.  But  the 
chance  week  of  heathendom  does  not  specially  concern 
us  now.  The  important  fact  involved  in  the  present 
statement  is  this  :  The  week  now  known  to  the  world, 
wherever  either  Christian  or  Moslem  influence  is  felt,  is 
the  result  wholly  of  the  spread  of  Christianity.  The 
converts  adopted  it  as  one  of  the  institutions  or  concom- 
itants of  their  faith.  It  was  nowhere  in  use  at  the  Chris- 
tian era,  except  among  the  Jews.  The  Roman  Empire 
was  fortified  against  it,  by  its  system  of  nundines,  which 
did  not  yield  until  the  empire  itself  submitted  to  Christ. 
A  heathen  historian,  Dio  Cassius,  in  the  last  century  of 
the  struggle  between  the  two  worships,  declared  that  the 
Romans  learned  the  week  from  the  Egyptians,  and  that 
the  peculiar  order  of  the  seven  names  for  its  days  was 
ingeniously  deduced  from  the  Pythagorean  cosmology. 
But  we  now  know  that  the  same  names  in  the  same 
strange  order  were  recorded  a  thousand  years  before  Py- 
thagoras. Moreover,  the  Egyptians,  whatever  dubious 
tradition  their  priest  guild  may  have  preserved,  had  as  a 
people  no  recurring  week  of  which  to  tell  the  Romans. 
Extant  literature  abundantly  proves,  that  both  learned 
something  of  it  first  from  Judaism,  and  were  forced  to 
adopt  it,  by  the  increasing  domination  of  Christianity. 
And  ever  since,  as  nation  after  nation  has  accepted  Chris- 
tianity, each  has  taken  with  it  the  Christian  week.  It 
will  be  the  sign  of  national  submission  to  the  cross,  when 
the  people  of  China  and  Japan  shall  use  it  familiarly. 


THE    WEEK.  69 

B.  According  to  the  second  statement,  a  certain  divine 
warrant  for  the  use  of  the  week  stands  in  the  history. 
This  warrant  stands  in  every  particular  now.  For  the 
Christian  week  is  identical  with  the  JMosaic.  It  is  not 
merely  like  it.  It  is  not  a  successor  to  it.  It  is  precisely 
and  exactly  the  same  series.  God  ordained  our  present 
week  for  his  people  redeemed  from  bondage.  The  risen 
Lord  observed  our  present  week  when  He  withheld  him- 
self, after  the  resurrection,  until  that  week  had  closed. 
It  does  not  matter,  as  to  this  point,  whether  the  series 
began  at  Sinai  or  before.  Nor  would  it  affect  this  his- 
torical argument  if  the  week  had  been  a  natural  period 
like  the  month  and  the  year.  If  the  Almighty  had  chosen 
to  take  a  certain  period,  which  men  had  learned  from 
nature  to  observe  occasionally,  and  if  He  had  chosen 
to  command,  for  a  special  duty,  the  regular  observance 
of  that  period,  then  it  would  have  become  a  sign  of 
his  prerogative,  just  as  the  rainbow  is  now  a  sign  of  his 
promise.  Much  more  emphatically,  therefore,  does  the 
week  represent  his  august  authority,  since  there  is  noth- 
ing to  which  its  conception  can  be  referred,  except  his 
own  charge.  And,  even  more  than  this,  as  if  to  rivet  the 
impression  that  the  week  was  clothed  with  a  divine  sanc- 
tion of  a  different  kind  from  that  of  all  other  divisions  of 
time,  God,  in  the  statutes  prescribed  for  Israel,  grouped 
months  and  years  in  weeks,  and  reduplicated  weeks  of 
weeks  and  weeks  of  years,  so  that,  all  religious  times 
must  go  by  sevens,  and  also,  that  the  observance  of  the 
sevens  would  be  the  most  distinct  ^  outward  token  of  loy- 
alty to  Him.  And,  however  the  letter  of  some  of  these 
statutes  may  have  been  limited  by  the  land  of  Israel, 
their  spirit  affects  all  men  who  are  loyal  to  God.  For 
they  clearly  set  forth  the  intent  of  God,  that  his  prerog- 
ative should  be  manifested  in  the  observance  of  septimal 
^  "Most  distinct,"  because  no  heathen  ever  had  the  Uke. 


70         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

time,  arranged  according  to  a  fixed  and  arbitrary  scheme, 
independent  of  nature,  resting  on  his  will  alone.  Our 
present  week,  being  the  identical  week  of  Moses'  age,  ex- 
pi'esses  now,  as  then,  that  acknowledgment  of  God's  su- 
premacy, and  of  human  loyalty,  which  in  a  general  sense 
we  call  religion.  It  may  be  said  that,  for  communities 
to  count  by  weeks,  is,  for  them  to  wear  the  uniform  of 
theism. 

C.  According  to  the  third  statement,  the  week  has  its 
historic  origin  and  model  in  the  example  of  God,  who, 
in  revealing  the  creation,  represents  himself  as  beginning 
our  world's  count  of  time  with  the  week.  This  state- 
ment has  no  relation  to  science.  Whatever,  during  the 
creative  processes,  may  have  been  the  lapse  of  time,  as 
compared  with  measures  now  familiar  to  us, —  whatever 
may  have  been  the  limits,  the  interspaces,  the  distinctive 
features  of  the  creative  periods,  as  geology,  if  it  were 
perfected,  could  describe  them,  —  the  fact  remains  that 
God  has  chosen  to  represent  the  whole  as  framed  in  a 
week  of  seven  days.  Again,  at  whatever  point  of  time, 
during  the  existence  of  our  race,  the  present  week  se- 
ries began, —  whether  in  the  sunshine  of  Eden,  or__ after 
the  fall,  or  at  the  exodus  from  Goshen,  —  the  fact  remains 
that  God  has  referred  to  his  creative  week  as  its  model. 
So  far  as  history  speaks  at  all  on  this  subject,  it  un- 
equivocally pronounces  the  week  no  invention  of  man, 
but  a  thought  of  God.  As  the  spiritual  world  is  beside 
the  material,  coexistent,  therefore  consistent,  yet  indepen- 
dent ;  as  the  Church  is  beside  the  secular  organism  of 
society,  the  state,  alike  in  the  demand  for  and  acceptance 
of  individual  allegiance,  yet  so  distinct  that  allegiance  to 
each  is  independent  of  the  other  ;  as  the  functions  of  re- 
ligion, the  acts  of  associated  and  of  individual  worship, 
are  beside  the  other  duties  and  activities  of  life,  the  one 
coloring,  supporting,  directing  the  other,  yet  each  having 


THE    WEEK.  71 

an  independent  purpose ;  so  is  the  week  athwart  the  roll 
of  all  secular  times,  which  are  measured  by  the  material 
works  of  God.  It  is  not  incongruous  with  them,  yet  not 
in  the  least  dependent ;  not  hindering  or  confusing,  but 
rather  helping  men  in  their  use,  yet  not  allied  in  the  least, 
—  a  distinct,  separate  time  succession,  dependent  for  its 
norm,  not  on  any  or  all  the  works  of  God,  but  on  his 
simple  word. 

IV.  The  successive  week,  like  no  other  time  measure, 
is  maintained  by  the  institution  of  a  sacred  day  to  mark 
its  boundary.  This  sacred  day  defines  the  week.  It 
brings  before  all  minds  the  week's  end  and  beginning. 
It  marks  the  transition  from  an  old  to  a  new  week.  No 
community  would  be  able  to  keep  the  reckoning,  without 
the  help  of  some  circumstance  which  should  bring  the 
fact  of  a  week's  conclusion  plainly  and  unavoidably  to 
general  notice.  Perhaps,  if  there  were  sufficient  induce- 
ment, a  body  of  officials  or  a  college  of  priests  might  be 
able  to  keep  such  a  reckoning  by  methods  of  their  own, 
without  any  popular  observance.  It  is  possible  (and  no 
more)  that  this  may  have  been  done  in  Egypt.  The 
difficulties  would  be  very  great.  Any  one  who  has  lost 
count  of  the  days  in  some  foreign  city  destitute  of  those 
familiar  signs  which  usher  in  the  week  at  home,  can 
realize  this.  After  some  time  at  sea,  or  in  forest,  or 
desert,  away  from  human  intercourse,  or  when  tied  to 
the  monotony  of  a  sick-bed,  it  becomes  no  easy  task  to 
keep  np  with  the  day  of  the  month,  or  sometimes  to  re- 
member which  month  is  passing,  much  less  to  tally  the 
week  days  all  alike. 

It  might  be  possible  to  maintain  the  succession  of 
weeks  for  a  time,  by  the  institution  of  a  mai-ket  on  the 
first  or  last  day  of  each.  But  that  would  be  carried  on 
only  so  long  as  its  advantages  were  felt.  There  could  be 
no  restraint  upon  a  change  of  day,  if  that  should  seem 


(-    EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

desirable.  If  war,  pestilence,  or  any  other  cause  pre- 
vented for  a  time  the  regular  market,  the  series  of  weeks 
would  be  broken  off  and  probably  forgotten.  But  there 
is  no  record  of  such  an  institution.  We,  in  fact,  know 
the  week  only  as  it  is  marked  by  a  religious  day.  It  is 
the  plant  of  which  that  day  is  the  blossom.  It  is  the 
husk  of  which  that  day  is  the  kernel.  It  is  the  setting 
of  which  that  day  is  the  gem.  It  is  the  man  of  which 
that  day  ^  is  the  face  and  head.  Yet  the  week  is  not 
wholly  incidental  to  the  institution  of  a  sacred  day. 
One  distinct  purpose  of  the  day  is  the  preservation  of 
the  week  series  intact.  For  it  is  not  any  one  day  in 
seven  that  may  be  treated  as  sacred.  Xothing  more,  it 
is  true,  than  that  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  command 
to  keep  boly  the  seventh  day.  But  the  history  of  our 
religion  shows  that,  in  fact,  the  sacred  day  has  always 
been  a  mark  or  boundary  of  the  unchanging  week. 
Since  divine  superintendence  has  always  been  over  the 
faithful,  we  must  believe  that  this  principle,  always  main- 
tained, expresses  the  divine  will.  Both  the  period  as 
such  and  the  day  as  such  are  religious  or  sacred  in  the 
sense  before  defined  ;  namely,  as  signs  of  a  relation  be- 
tween God  and  a  community  of  men,  because  alike  used 
onh'  by  communities  who  acknowledge  God,  alike  sanc- 
tioned to  Him,  alike  originating  in  his  own  representa- 
tion of  his  creative  work.  Therefore  the  week  cannot 
exist  without  the  day,  or  the  day  stand  without  the  week. 
Each  implies  the  other.     Each  supports  the  other. 

It  may,  however,  be  necessary  to  entertain  the  ques- 
tion, whether,  if  it  were  possible  to  obliterate  entirely 
the  religious  character  of  Sundaj',  so  that  no  one  should 
in  any  way  be  reminded  of  God  by  its  return,  the  week 
might  not  still  continue  in  popular  use.  Those  influences 
tending  to  maintain  it  may  be  now  discerned.  These 
1  George  Herbert,  Sunday. 


THE   WEEK.  V3 

are  religious  doty,  familiar  custom,  and  convenience.  Of 
course  if  the  religious  character  of  Sunday  should  van- 
ish, there  would  be  no  religious  impulse  for  counting 
the  weeks.  But  this  might  be  kept  up  for  the  sake  of 
custom  and  convenience,  if  a  secular  holiday  could  be 
established  after  the  elimination  of  the  holy  day.  There 
would  certainly  be  some  in  England  and  America,  if  not 
elsewhere,  who  would  advocate,  on  grounds  of  public 
expediency  wholly  apart  from  religious  considerations,  a 
legal  holiday  as  pregnant  as  the  present  Sunday.  But  it 
would,  of  course,  be  necessary  to  create  this  holiday  by 
statute.  Moreover,  to  protect  those  for  whose  benefit  it 
is  intended,  employers  (other  than  those  whose  business 
is  presumably  indispensable)  must  be  compelled  to  sus- 
pend work.  Whenever  such  a  law  should  be  proposed,  it 
is  absolutely  certain  that  it  would  be  vehemently  opposed 
bv  two  classes.  One  would  urge,  reasonably  enough  from 
their  point  cf  view,  that  to  enact  a  weekly  holiday  would 
be  substantially  to  reinstate  the  discarded  sacred  day ; 
and  so  they  would  plead  for  a  day  unmistakably  distinct, 
the  eighth  or  tenth  day,  or  some  particular  day  or  days 
of  the  month.  To  them  the  week  could  not  be  other 
than  a  reminder  of  God.  It  should  go  with  his  day. 
Another  class,  larger  probably  and  more  influential, 
would  argue,  in  the  interest  of  commerce  and  industry, 
against  frequent  holidays.  They  would  show  that  a  day 
of  pleasure-seeking  and  dissipation  unfitted  men  for  the 
next  day's  work.  The  restraints  of  religion  having  been 
removed,  the  proposed  holiday  would  infallibly  (judging 
from  experience)  be  much  more  a  day  of  reckless  in- 
dulgence and  debauchery  than  the  worst-kept  Sunday  is 
now.  As,  therefore,  the  proposed  day  would  really  in- 
volve the  loss  of  two  or  three  days  of  profitable  work, 
the  business  class  would  strenuously  endeavor  to  have 
it  occur  only  once  in  two  or  three  weeks,  or  after  a  longer 


74         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

interval.  It  is  as  certain  as  any  deduction  from  experi- 
ence can  be,  that  this  opposition  to  a  weekly  holiday 
would  prevail.  Those  who  favored  it  could  not  prove, 
on  humanitarian  grounds,  that  precisely  one  day  in  seven 
was  needed  for  relaxation  rather  tlian  one  day  in  eight, 
or  ten,  or  tl^irt3^  Physicians  and  scientific  men  would 
express  widely  different  opinions.  The  result  would  be, 
at  best,  a  compromise.  The  proposed  holiday,  if  en- 
acted, would  be  fixed  on  certain  days  of  the  month,  and 
bear  no  reference  to  the  week  at  all.  Probably  it  would 
be  shifted  about  from  time  to  time  by  successive  legisla- 
tures, sometimes  more,  sometimes  less  frequent,  some- 
times threatening  to  disappear.  True  religion,  or  false 
religion,  or  the  most  shadowy  superstition,  can  maintain 
an  indefinite  number  of  holidays.  In  some  lanJs  so 
many  are  now  enforced  in  this  way  as  to  be  a  serious 
drain  upon  production,  and  a  stubborn  hindrance  to  all 
improvement.  But  commerce  is  an  enemy  of  all  holi- 
days. They  are  incongruous  with  its  life.  It  always 
opposes  their  establishment.  It  always  encroaches  upon 
them.  They  are  not  profitable.  It  may  be  true  that,  in 
the  long  run,  more  wealth  can  be  gained  in  six  days,  fol- 
lowed by  a  regular  Sabbath  spent  religiously,  than  in  un- 
interrupted devotion  to  business.  But  herein  is  involved 
the  consideration  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  benefits 
accruing  from  the  religious  observance.  Take  those 
away,  and  business  men  will  never  believe  that  six  days 
can  be  more  profitable  than  seven.  The  great  body  of 
wage-earners  will  believe  it  just  as  little.  Then  when 
once  a  generation  should  have  grown  up  in  utter  igno- 
rance of  any  religious  association  with  the  week,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  custom  or  convenience  could  keep 
it  in  familiar  use.  Custom  could  preserve  nothing  but 
the  series  of  seven  day-names.  Every  day  is  now  dis- 
tinguished in  two  ways.     One   is  sufficient.     For  com- 


THE    WEEK.  75 

niercial  and  legal  purposes  one  only  is  commonlj^  used. 
The  merchant  and  the  lawyer  write  July  1st.  The 
newspaper  and  familiar  letters  may  be  dated  Tuesday, 
July  1st.  In  conversation  probably  the  day  would  be 
more  frequently  mentioned  as  Tuesday  than  as  July  1st. 
And  there  is  a  reason  for  this.  Sunday  is  a  fact  which 
influences  our  lives  in  a  thousand  ways.  Every  day  of 
the  week  is  involuntarily  and  unintentionally  regarded 
in  reference  to  its  distance  from  that.  The  significance 
of  Friday  is  ^  that  it  is  two  days,  of  Thursday,  that  it  is 
three  days,  before  Sunday.  Let  Sunday  be  made  pre- 
cisely like  Thursday  or  Friday,  and  those  names  would 
become  meaningless.  What  possible  difference  could  it 
make  whether  the  day  were  called  Thursday  or  Friday, 
if  Saturday,  Sunday,  and  Monday  are  to  follow  with 
nothing  to  distinguish  between  them.  Remembering  the 
week  name  of  the  day  would  become  more  and  more 
difficult  from  the  lack  of  points  for  comparison.  And 
the  recollection  would  serve  no  practical  end.  To  note 
the  day  of  the  month  is  sufficient  for  all  uses  and  require- 
ments, when  there  is  no  reference  either  to  the  religious 
character  of  Sunday,  or  to  those  features  which  it  has 
derived,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  that  character.  It 
is  as  certain  as  any  forecast  of  human  affairs  can  be  that 
in  no  long  time,  under  such  conditions,  the  names  of  the 
week  days  would  fade  out  of  popular  knowledge,  and 
live  among  the  learned,  like  the  names  of  Greek  or 
Hebrew  months. 

When  thoroughly  examined,  the  perfect  consistency 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  exact  correlation  of  all  their 
parts,  become  the  better  understood.  It  cannot  be  that 
among  the  very  brief  records  permitted  by  the  Spirit  of 
Wisdom  to  reach  us  concerning  the  most  important  event 

^  For  example,  the  Germans  call  Wednesday  "Mittwoch,"  or 
"  Midweek,"  instead  of  Wodenstag,  the  old  name. 


76         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

in  all  history,  a  statement  repeated  five  times  should  be 
accounted  trivial,  or  even  of  secondary  moment.  He  by 
whom  apostles  as  well  as  prophets  spake  has  thus  em- 
phasized the  fact  that  the  resurrection  of  our  Loi-d  is  in 
some  preeminently  significant  way  related  to  the  week. 
When  the  nature  of  the  week  is  comprehended,  the 
reason  for  this  emphasis  begins  to  appear.  The  week 
has  been,  through  the  ages  as  now,  the  sign  of  a  relation 
between  God  and  man.  It  is  a  witness,  not  —  like  months 
and  years  —  to  the  material,  but  to  the  spiritual.  It  tells 
not  of  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  which  are  seen,  but  of  a 
Spirit  unseen.  It  exists,  not  in  accordance  with  con- 
ditions and  circumstances  inherent  in  nature,  but  by  the 
arbitrament  of  a  Supreme  Will,  communicated  to  loyal 
dependents.  It  is  fitted  for  human  use,  kept  in  its 
regular  unvarying  succession  before  human  notice,  and 
maintained  as  the  assurance  of  divine  regard  for  man, 
by  the  institution  of  a  sacred  day  which  marks  its  boun- 
dary and  illuminates  the  transition  from  one  week  to 
the  next.  The  emphasis,  then,  of  the  fivefold  gospel 
statement  is  on  this  circumstance,  that  our  Lord's  resur- 
rection day  is  the  boundary,  the  defining  day  of  a  new 
week,  —  identical  with  the  old,  yet  transfigured  in  this 
new  moi-ning's  light.  So,  then,  all  the  significance  of 
that  day,  which  seals  to  man  his  one  great  all-compre- 
hending divinely-centred  hope,  is  blended  with  the  sig- 
nificance of  that  period  which,  through  the  ages,  has 
assured  a  bond  between  God  and  man,  —  when  the 
transcendent  day  of  days  is  described  as  the  first  day 
of  the  week. 


STUDY  IV. 

THE    PRIMEVAL    SACRED   DAY. 

"  The  Lord  said  unto  Noah  .  .  .  The  Lord  shut  him  in."  —  Gen.  vii.  1,  16. 

Unlike  the  unvarying  monotony  of  the  week  the  his- 
tory of  its  sacred  day  is  a  development.  This  development 
has  three  distinct  stages,  the  second  of  which  corresponds 
with  the  national^  career  of  Israel.  In  this  second  or 
central  stage  the  day  appears  as  one  member  of  a  system 
of  observances,  closely  related  in  their  manner,  and  all 
defined  and  enforced  by  special  statutes.  Since  this  sys- 
tem of  statutes  and  observances  was  not  known  in  the 
earlier  pre-Israelite  age,  and  since  it  has  been  in  abeyance 
during  the  later  or  post-Israelite  age,  it  is  evident  that 
the  essential  and  universal  and  perpetual  features  or  char- 
acteristics of  the  sacred  day  must  be  independent  of  that 
system.  The  nation  ^  of  Israel,  and  its  national  laws, 
lived  only  about  fifteen  hundred  years.  That  which  char- 
acterized the  sacred  day  during  the  thousands  of  years 
preceding  and  succeeding  Israel's  age  must  be  its  core 
and  heart  and  life,  not  that  which  was  known  and  pre- 
scribed only  during  the  comparatively  brief  space  inter- 
mediate. Yet,  since  the  statutes  pertaining  to  this  inter- 
mediate stage  —  even  those  clearly  evanescent  —  are  all 

^  By  "nation"  ("national")  is  meant  here  a  people  organized 
and  localized,  that  is  having  a  government  and  territory  of  tlieir 
own,  as  distinguished  from  the  race,  those  sprung  from  one  root 
(radix).  The  organized  and  localized  nation  of  Israel  has  vanished. 
The  race  still  endures. 


78         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

divine  in  their  origin  and  authority,  expressing  God's 
thought ;  and  since  all  the  works,  all  the  plans,  and  all 
the  arrangements  of  Him  who  is  perfect  wisdom,  must 
be  harmonious  and  cooperative,  therefore,  all  that  is 
limited  to  this  central  stage,  as  its  peculiar  characteristic, 
must  be  the  development  and  illustration  and  enforce- 
ment of  something  which,  before  and  after,  as  well  as  all 
through  that  time,  continued  to  be  the  real,  unvarying, 
and  deepest  principle  of  the  observance.  Through  all 
the  long  ages  humanity  has  grown  stronger  and  wiser. 
The  divine  plans  have  been  unfolded  and  explained  as 
the  human  capacity  to  understand  them  and  act  upon 
them  has  grown.  It  is  not,  therefore,  in  debate  whether 
the  nineteenth  Christian  century  —  the  heir  of  all  the 
Christian  and  of  all  the  Israelitish  ages  —  mayor  may 
not  have  a  larger  interest  in  this  sacred  day  than  any 
antediluvian.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  no  less  be- 
yond controversy  that  those  interests  in  the  day  which 
we  share  with  the  antediluvians  must  be,  as  the  earliest, 
so  the  most  enduring,  therefore  the  most  profoundly  and 
essentially  vital,  —  the  most  human  of  all. 

The  Book  of  Genesis,  in  its  relation  to  the  sacred  sev- 
enth day,  presents  some  remarkable  parallels  to  the  New 
Testament  in  its  treatment  of  the  Lord's  Day.  The 
Lord's  Day  is  so  styled  in  the  New  Testament  once  ;  the 
seventh  day,  in  Genesis  once.  The  event  to  which  the 
Lord's  Day  refers  is  clearly  described  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament ;  the  event  to  which  the  seventh  day  refers  is 
equally  clear  in  Genesis.  The  action  of  our  Lord,  in 
observing  the  week  by  his  abstention  and  in  glorifying 
its  boundary  day  by  his  manifestation,  answers  to  the 
action  of  the  Creator  who  obsei-ves  the  week  in  the  de- 
velopment of  his  Kosmos,  and  crowns  the  seventh  day 
with  his  personal  benediction.  Li  the  New  Testament 
there  is  no  formal  command  to  observe  the  Lord's  Day  ; 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  79 

in  Genesis,  no  formal  command  to  observe  tlie  seventh 
day.  But  as  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day,  after 
the  close  of  the  New  Testament  canon,  throws  light  upon 
the  few  alhisions  in  tlie  text,  so  the  observance  j.^  ^g.  22- 
of  the  seventh  day,  after  the  close  of  Genesis  ^"• 
and  before  the  enactments  at  Sinai,  throws  light  upon 
the  earlier  records.  Nevertheless,  alike  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament and  in  Genesis,  the  facts  of  the  actual  observance 
of  the  sacred  days  are  stated  incidentally,  not  directly, 
as  though  the  author  of  Holy  Writ  intended  that  their 
meaning  should  be  yielded  up  to  those  of  later  times,  pre- 
pared by  the  discipline  of  the  ages  to  use  it.  On  their 
earliest  readers  (or  reciters)  the  impression  which  induced 
them  to  maintain  their  sacred  day  was  made  by  some- 
thing more  than  this  bare  record. 

There  is  a  minor  correspondence  in  the  circumstance 
that  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  five  ^  times  mentioned 
in  the  New  Testament  as  the  resurrection  day,  and  five 
days  in  Genesis  are  mentioned  as  the  boundaries  of  hu- 
man weeks.  No  circumstance  is  trivial  in  these  stories. 
That  fivefold  repetition  in  the  gospels  certifies  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Aveek  by  Christianity.  Those  five  days  in 
Genesis  certify  the  maintenance  of  the  week  in  all  the 
primeval  age.  They  occur  on  the  border  between  an- 
cient and  most  ancient  time  in  the  history  of  the  flood. 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  Gen.  7:  1. 
and  all  thy  house  into  the  ark.  .  .  .  For  yet  Gen.  7:4. 
seven  days,  and  I  will  cause  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth.  .  .  . 
And  it  came  to  pass,  after  seven  days,  that  the  Gen.  7:  10. 
waters  of  the  flood  were  upon  the  earth.     In   Gen.  7:  11. 

1  There  are  six  notices  of  the  resurrection  on  the  first  day  of  the 
•week  if  the  last  verses  of  Mark  are  accepted.  There  are  also  six 
days  in  Genesis  if  the  flight  of  the  raven  occurred  a  week  before  the 
first  flight  of  the  dove  from  the  ark,  as  suggested  by  the  words 
'^^  other  seven  days." 


80  EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  six  hundredth  year  of  Noah's  life,  in  the  second 
month,  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month,  the  same  day 
were  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  broken  up.  .  .  . 
Gen.  7: 13.  In  the  self-same  day  entered  Noah  .  .  .  into  the 
Gen. 7:16.  ark;  .  .  .  and  the  Lord  shut  him  in."  The 
command  to  enter  came  seven  days  before  the  shutting 
in.  Two  days  therefore  are  fixed  here,  the  tenth  and 
the  seventeenth  of  the  second  month,  each  the  boundary 
of  a  week. 

When  the   flood   had  largely  abated,  Noah  sent  out 
„  „    a  dove  which  soon  returned  weary.     After  a 

Gen.  8 : 8, 9.  ,  ,         i  i  •    i 

Gen.  8:  10,  wcek  he  again  sent  out  the  dove,  which  again 
"■  returned,  but  this  time  bringing  a  sproutlet  of 

Gen.  8:  12.  welcome  grccn.  Yet  again,  after  another  week, 
he  let  go  the  dove,  to  see  her  no  more.  Here  are  three 
days,  each  the  boundary  of  a  week.  Before  sending  out 
the  dove  Noah  had  dispatched  a  raven.  Whether  this 
was  immediately  before  and  on  the  same  day,  or  whether 
it  was  seven  days  before,  is  not  certain.  The  words 
"  other  seven  days,"  in  Hebrew  as  in  English,  may  imply 
a  previous  week's  interval.     The  raven  went  forth  on  the 

fortieth  day  after  the  first  of  the  tenth  month. 

Counting  the  tenth  month  as  of  twenty-nine 
days  and  including  its  first  day  in  the  forty,  the  day  of 
the  raven  would  be  the  eleventh  of  the  next  month.  If 
the  dove  was  let  go  first,  after  a  week,  then  its  days  were 
the  eighteenth  and  twenty-fifth  of  the  eleventh  month, 
and  the  second  of  the  twelfth.  These  are  all  counted  as 
lunar  months. 

Were  they  lunar  months  ?  Some  have  thought  that 
they  were  all  to  be  taken  as  of  thirty  days  each.  This 
opinion  is  based  upon  the  mention  of  the  ark's  grounding 

"  in  the  seventh  month,  on  the  seventeenth  day 

of  the  month,"  just  five  months  after  the  flood 
began ;  and  upon  the  statement  in  the  same  connection, 


THE  PRIMEVAL  SACRED  DAY.  81 

that  "  the  waters  prevailed  upon  the  earth  an  hundred  and 
fifty  days ;  "  and  "  after  the  end  of  the  hundred  Gen.  7:  24. 
and  fifty  days  the  waters  were  abated."  It  has  Qen.  s:  3. 
been  assumed  that  the  five  months  and  the  hundred  and 
fifty  days  were  the  same  period.  But  the  narrative  does 
not  warrant  this  assumption,  and  is  forced  into  an  un- 
natural if  not  absurd  interpretation  by  accepting  it. 
And  if  the  assumption  were  accepted  it  would  prove 
that  the  months  in  question  did  not  consist  of  thirty  days 
each. 

There  is  a  radical  difference  in  character  between  the 
two  series  of  events  to  which  the  five  months  and  the 
hundred  and  fifty  days  are  respectively  referred.  The 
"  shuttino;  in  "  the  ark  was  a  definite  circumstance  un- 
erringly  associated  with  a  definite  day.  The  resting  upon 
Ararat  was  an  equally  definite  circumstance,  equally  fixed 
in  its  association  with  a  definite  day.  Each  involved  an 
impact,  a  sensible  physical  efifect,  at  a  certain  precise 
moment.  Each  necessarily  evoked  the  liveliest  interest 
and  the  most  particular  notice  of  Noah  and  his  party. 
There  could  be  no  uncertainty  or  misconception  here. 
But  there  could  be  no  precise  statement  of  the  time 
during  which  the  waters  prevailed.  Who  could  fix  the 
height  which  was  to  be  taken  as  the  level  of  their  prev- 
alence ?  Who  could  ascertain  when  that  level  was  sur- 
passed and  when  it  was  regained  on  the  ebb  ?  Such  a 
statement  as  we  have  here,  if  made  by  a  modern  engi- 
neer provided  with  all  his  instruments  of  precision,  would 
be  taken  as  an  indefinite  round  number,  and  would  be  so 
intended  by  him.  The  inmates  of  the  ark  had  appar- 
ently very  little  outlook  before  the  removal  of  its  cover- 
ing. They  saw  when  the  hill-tops  had  disappeared,  and 
noticed  when  they  had  emerged  again.  But  they  could 
have  had  no  view  of  the  general  surface.  They  sent  out 
the  birds  to  gather  information  of  that.     They  knew 


82         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

probably  that  t^ey  must  be  fifteen  cubits  above  the  land 

^     „   n.     when  their  vessel,  thirty  cubits  high,  was  float- 
Gen.  7:  20.     ,  .  •'  ° 

ing.  But  in  the  nature  of  things  they  did  not 
and  could  not  fix  the  moment  or  the  day  when  the  wa- 
ters began  or  ceased  "  to  prevail."  The  time  of  their 
prevalence   is   properly  expressed   by  a  round  number. 

Moreover,  the  identification  of  these  hundred  and  fifty 
days  with  the  five  months  involves  the  absurdity  of  sup- 
posing that  the  flood  rose  to  a  vast  height  over  the  whole 
region  on  the  very  day  when  it  began  to  rain.  For  if 
this  identification  be  true,  then  the  time  of  prevalence 
ceased  when  the  waters  were  still  about  twenty  feet  deep 
on  the  height  where  the  ark  rested,  and  of  course  very 
much  deeper  over  the  plain.  And  since,  on  this  the- 
cr}'^,  the  prevalence  began  on  the  first  day  of  the  flood, 
the  waters  must  have  risen  immediately  to  a  correspond- 
ing height.  But  to  suppose  that,  wath  less  than  one 
whole  day  of  rain,  the  inundation  was  so  great  as  to  float 
the  ark  and  to  prevail  twenty  feet  deep  over  the  coun- 
try, seems  to  be  pressing  the  miraculous  equally  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  record  and  of  sound  common 
sense.  To  meet  all  the  requirements  of  the  verbal  state- 
ments in  the  narrative  with  perfect  consistency,  w^e  have 
only  to  understand  that,  after  the  forty  days'  rain,  the 
general  submergence  continued  for  a  long  period,  stated 
in  round  numbers  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  days,  during 
which  the  ark,  however,  rested  on  some  higli  point. 

But  if  it  were  believed  that  the  deluge  reached  its 
height  instantaneousl}',  so  that  the  time  when  it  prevailed 
could  be  said  to  be  ended  as  the  ark  grounded,  then  the 
necessary  conclusion  must  be,  that  the  five  months  did 
not  consist  of  thirty  days  each.  For  it  is  certain,  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrew  idiom,  and  according  to  oriental  ideas 
and  the  general  practice  of  antiquity,  that  if  these  hun- 
dred and  fifty  days  are  to  be  taken  precisely,  then  we 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  83 

must  count  the  starting-point,^  the  seventeenth  clay  of 
the  second  month,  as  the  first  of  tliem,  leaving  only  a 
hundred  and  forty-nine  days  to  the  five  months. 

Leaving  then  this  theory  to  shift  for  itself,  it  is  time 
to  notice  three  facts,  disconnected  and  independent  of 
each  other,  which  present  good  evidence  that  the  Noa- 
chian  calendar  must  have  been  made  of  lunar  months,  al- 
ternating twenty-nine  and  thirty  days. 

The  first  fact  is,  that  such  is  the  natural  calendar. 
The  firmanent  is  nature's  clock-face.  The  sun  and  moon 
are  the  hands  upon  the  dial.  They  serve  men  who  are 
without  almanacs  and  without  science.  They  regulate 
themselves.  On  this  celestial  clock-face  the  moon  is  the 
minute-hand,  whose  movements  are  most  rapid  and  most 
noticeable.  The  new  moon  begins  each  month.  Men  soon 
learn  by  experience  precisely  when  to  look  for  it.  Though 
the  heavens  be  covered  with  clouds,  and  the  crescent  there- 
fore hidden,  yet  count  is  made  from  the  last  quartering 
or  other  circumstance  w^ith  little  room  for  error.  And 
the  first  clear  night  corrects  any  error  that  may  occur. 
The  beginning  of  the  year  in  Mesopotamia  would  doubt- 
less be  at  the  new  moon  first  and.  after  (or  nearest  to) 
the  autumnal  equinox,  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season. 
Every  third  year  would  have  thirteen  new  moons.  But 
there  would  be  no  need  to  count  the  lunations  so  as  to 
allot  the  intercalary  one  to  its  proper  place.  Probably 
the  beginning  of  the  rains  would  be  the  sign  observed  in 
practice,  rather  than  the  sun's  course.  If,  therefore,  when 
the  rains  began  twelve  new  moons  had  appeared,  that 
year  would  have  twelve  months.  But  if  the  thirteenth 
moon  appeared  before  the  rains,  then  there  would  be 
thirteen  months.  We  know  that  on  the  average  this 
would  occur  every  third  year.     Thus  there  would  be  a 

^  Gen.  7:  10  has  "  after  seven  days,"  of  whicli  seven  the  lOtli  day 
of  the  2d  month  was  the  first.     The  day  after  the  eighth. 


84         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

variation  in  the  length  of  one  year  out  of  three.  With 
us  also  the  years  vary ;  one  out  of  four  being  longer  by  a 
day.  But  though  the  variation  in  the  natural  is  so  much 
greater  than  in  our  own  highly  artificial  calendar  of  the 
years,  it  matters  nothing  for  simple  peoples,  for  agricul- 
tural and  pastoral  lives,  and  for  all  the  demands  of  loosely 
organized  society,  or  of  rudimentary  bartering  trade.  If, 
by  any  chance,  some  one  should  begin  the  month  a  day 
too  soon  or  the  year  a  month  too  soon,  the  error  would 
infallibly  be  corrected  at  the  next  new  moon  or  new  year. 
No  minute  computation  of  rent,  or  of  interest,  or  official 
tenure,  would  be  thought  of  by  such  folk,  and  no  matter 
of  weight  and  concern  to  them  would  be  affected  by  an 
error  if  it  were  made.     Probably  it  was  never  made. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  artificial  calendar  cannot  exist, 
except  under  the  two  conditions  that  a  demand  for  it  is 
felt  and  that  means  for  providing  it  are  available.  That 
is,  the  i^eople  must  be  supposed  to  have  reached  such  a 
stage  of  civilization  and  of  commerce  that  the  variation 
in  the  years,  by  the  natural  calendar,  has  become  sensibly 
inconvenient.  They  must  have  transactions  in  the  na- 
ture of  rents  or  business  credits  involving  close  calcula- 
tion of  the  time  for  settlement.  Or  they  must  have  a 
central  authority  which,  for  some  purpose  connected  with 
its  religious  ritual,  or  for  some  administrative  end,  such 
as  taxation  or  conscription,  desires  that  its  years  should 
begin  always  with  the  same  phase  of  the  sun,  and  so  be 
as  nearly  as  possible  equal.  Moreover,  there  must  be 
such  progress  in  astronomy  and  mathematics  that  a  tol- 
erably correct  solar  year  has  been  calculated ;  and  there 
must  be  so  much  governmental  vigor  that  the  new  calen- 
dar is  made  known  and  enforced  throughout  the  commu- 
nity. For  the  new  calendar  is  artificial.  It  may  fairly  cor- 
respond to  the  sun's  course,  but  for  this  purpose  it  must 
disregard  the  moon.    There  is  no  new  sun,  like  the  new 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  85 

moon,  to  mark  an  initial  day  ;  therefore  the  day  of  this 
artificial  new  year  must  be  fixed  arbitrarily.  And  since 
for  the  year's  sake  the  moons  are  more  or  less  disre- 
garded, the  day  of  each  month's  beginning  must  also  be 
fixed  by  law  and  enforced  by  the  state.  Our  own  calen- 
dar is  so  fixed  now,  as  that  of  every  advanced  nation  has 
always  been.  We  have  no  evidence  that  these  conditions 
existed  in  Noah's  day.  No  trace  appears  of  any  organ- 
ization such  as  could  fairly  be  called  a  state.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  there  was  the  skill,  as  yet,  to  contrive  and 
adjust  an  artificial  calendar  if  it  were  wanted.  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly improbable  that  there  could  be  such  a  social 
development  as  would  care  for  any  other  than  nature's 
calendar  marked  on  the  sky  for  every  man,  and  indepen- 
dent of  the  attention  or  the  will  of  any  man. 

There  is  a  second  fact.    This  natural  calendar  is  that  of 
the  Mosaic  legislation  and  of  the  Hebrew  nation,   compare! 
Every  month  for  them  began  with  a  new  moon,  fo^wuh  Ps. 
Their  year   began  with    the  new  moon  of  the  ^^  •  '^^■ 
autumnal  equinox.     Thus  the  Sabbatic  years  and  the  Ju- 
bilee were  proclaimed  at  the  time  of  the  nation- 

^  .  Lev.  25 :  9. 

al   atonement.       Iheir  months,  however,  were 
counted  from  the  new  moon,  about  the  time  of  the  vernal 
equinox,  when  the  Passover  opened  the  grand 
yearly  ritual.     But   it  is    not  to  be    supposed 
that  there  was  any  scientific  determination  of  equinoxes. 
If  the  spring  were  sufficiently  advanced  so  that  some  ripe 
barleys  would  be  found  within  a  fortnight  in  the  warm 
Jordan  valley,  then  the  new  moon  would  open  the  first 
month.     If  the  spring  were  late,  this  would  be  the  inter- 
calary month,  the  double  Adar.     If  there  were  any  room 
for  doubt,  the  high  priest  could  decide,  and  the  travel- 
ing Levites  speedily  disseminate  the  notice.    But  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  see  how  any  doubt  could  arise.     Certainly  we 
have  no  indication  of  any  confusion.    Probably  they  kept 


86         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

up  the  fixed  custom  of  repeating  their  Adar,  the  twelfth 
month,  every  third  year. 

The  Israelites  did  not  learn  this  calendar  in  Egypt. 
There,  in  Moses'  time,  the  year  in  common  use  probably 
consisted  of  twelve  months  having  thirty  days  each,  with 
five  intercalary  days.  Perhaps  the  Hebrews,  while  they 
were  Egyptian  subjects,  were  compelled  to  conform  to 
this  calendar.  If  so,  they  still  kept  note  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  and  fell  back  to  the  older  habit  the  moment  they 
contemplated  escape.  No  trace  of  the  Egyptian  year  ap- 
pears in  the  history.  The  great  Lawgiver  of  Israel  incor- 
porated the  story  of  Noah  in  his  books,  that  it  might  be 
read  by  Israel  and  Israel's  posterit3%  But  to  these  noth- 
ing could  have  been  suggested  by  the  word  month,  except 
the  moon's  time,  with  which  they  were  familiar.  This 
is  what  Moses  certainly  meant  when  he  wrote  "  month  " 
elsewhere.  Can  it  be  believed  that  in  this  story  he  used 
the  word,  without  notice,  in  a  different  sense,  so  as  at 
once  to  be  inconsistent  with  himself  and  infallibly  to  mis- 
lead his  people? 

There  is  a  third  fact.  This  natural,  Mosaic,  Israelitish 
calendar,  when  applied  to  the  incidents  of  the  narrative, 
reveals  an  adequate  reason  for  the  specification  of  the 
different  dates.  It  shows  that  the  divine  communications 
and  interpositions,  and  the  significant  acts  of  Noah  as  a 
man  of  faith,  all  took  place  on  the  same  sacred  day  of 
regular  and  successive  weeks.  This  fact  is  exhibited  by 
the  following  table  :  — 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY. 


87 


ASSUMED 

CALENDAI 

I   OF   THE   ARK   STOR 

Y. 

Year  of 

Noah,  600. 

Month. 

Sacred  Day. 

I. 

(30  days) 

5 
12 
19 
26 

II. 

(29  days) 

3 

10 

Notice  to  embark,  chap.  7  :  4. 

17 

Shut  in,  chap.  7  :  11.     "]  .c  ;;^ 

24 

^  ^r 

III. 

(30  days) 

2 

'7^  T! 

9 

S't- 

16 
23 

III.  mo.  27  day.      J  ^o 

30 

IV. 

(29  days) 

7 
14 
21 
28 

V. 

(30  days) 

6 
13 
20 
27 

VI. 

(29  days) 

4 
11 

18 

• 

25 

VII. 

(30  days) 

3 
10 

17 

Grounding  of  ark,  chap.  8  :  4. 

24 

VIII. 

(29  days) 

1 

8 

15 

22 

29 

IX. 

(30  days) 

7 
14 
21 

28 

First    mountain    tops, 

-\-Zl 

X. 

(29  days) 

5 
12 
19 
26 

chap.  8  :  5. 

(M  OO  'rt    6 

II  d.?'  3 

XI. 

(30  days) 

4 

-^       ^   ° 

11 

Raven,  chap.  8:7. 

O    -h"     II    "S 

18 

Dove  1st,  chap.  8:  8. 

1 

25 

Dove  2d,  chap.  8 :  10. 

EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 


Month. 

Sacred  Day. 

XII. 

(29  days) 

2 

9 

16 

23 

Dove  3d,  chap.  8: 

12. 

Year  of  Noah,  601. 

!    I- 

(30  days) 

1 

8 

15 

22 

29 

Uncovering,  cliap. 

8:  13, 

II. 

(29  days) 

6 
13 
20 
27 

Exit  and  sacrifice, 

chap. 

From  the  day  of  shutting  in  to  the  day  of  exit,  52  weeks.  Preva- 
lence of  waters,  150  days  indefinite  time.     Chaps.  7:  24;  8  :  3. 

In  this  calendar  the  first  month  has  been  taken  as  of 
thirty  days  and  the  second  of  twenty-nine  days.  The 
order  might  have  been  reversed,  for  there  is  no  rule  in 
nature  that  the  second  new  moon  of  each  year  shall 
appear  thirty  days  rather  than  twenty-nine  days  after 
the  first.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Noah"s  family 
counted  the  days.  At  least  they  have  never  told  us  how 
many  they  counted.  Our  science  has  told  us  that  there 
would  ordinarily  be  this  alternation.  When  we  find  that 
by  taking  the  first  month  at  thirty  days  all  the  events 
of  the  story  fit  into  their  proper  places,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  our  hypothesis  is  true. 

On  the  tenth  of  month  second  Noah  received  a  divine 
communication.  The  occasion  was  solemn.  It  was  the 
announcement  of  the  immediate  approach  of  dire  calam- 
ity. Yet  the  imminent  storm  of  retribution  was  pierced 
with  the  golden  light  of  an  explicit  and  benign  prom- 
ise.    It  was  like  the  gospel-preaching  of  the  acceptable 

year  and  the  day  of  vengeance.     Was  not  the 
Is  61  •  2  . 

day  when  God  spake  this  word  to  Noah  a  sacred 

day? 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  89 

Seven  days  later  there  was  another  divine  intervention 
still  more  solemn.  What  kind  of  human  beings  would 
those  eight  be  if,  in  the  dusk  and  closing  gloom  of  that 
awful  day,  in  their  strange  habitation  and  stranger  com- 
panionship, they  did  not  thrill  with  overwhelming  emotion 
when,  —  buried  from  the  living  world  of  men,  ushered 
upon  a  momentous  voyage  through  the  unknown,  and 
aware  that  they  must  not  expect  to  return  to  those  whom 
they  were  leaving,  —  the  Lord  shut  them  in  !  Was  not 
this,  too,  a  sacred  day  ?  If  now  the  succession  of  sev- 
enth days  is  noted,  the  twenty-first  after  the  flood  began 
is  found  to  be  that  day  when,  after  five  months  of 
weary  heaving  on  the  waters,  the  great  structure  at  last 
grounded.  This  circumstance,  if  part  of  the  experience 
of  an  ordinary  shipwreck,  would  have  been  no  more  than 
an  interesting  incident.  But  this  ark  history  is  no  ordi- 
nary human  experience.  Leaving  out  any  typical  or 
symbolic  character,  it  is  the  record  of  a  man  of  faith  who, 
in  obedience  to  God  and  in  reliance  on  the  promise  of 
God,  intrusted  himself  and  his  family  to  the  care  of 
God,  under  conditions  in  which  he  himself  was  able 
neither  to  exercise  any  influence  over  the  direction  of 
affairs,  nor  even  to  know  day  by  day  their  state.  He 
was  "  shut  in  "  the  ark.  He  was  helpless  in  the  ark. 
He  knew  not  the  developments  outside  the  ark,  and  could 
not  hope  to  learn.  He  knew  when  the  rain  fell  and 
when  the  sun  shone.  The  monotone  of  the  wash  against 
his  vessel's  sides  doubtless  became  tediously  familiar. 
But  whither  the  ark  was  going,  what  sign  there  might 
be  of  release,  or  whether  by  any  means  a  better  course 
might  be  taken  so  as  to  hasten  the  release,  —  he  could 
not  tell.  He  was  solely  in  the  care  of  God.  Under 
these  conditions  the  touch  of  the  ark  upon  a  shoulder  of 
Ararat  was  a  ratification  of  the  promise.  It  evinced  the 
Lord's  protection  through  the  past  five  stormy  months. 


90         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

It  assui'ed  the  validity  of  his  word  to  carry  them  safely 
through  and  out  of  the  trial.  The  quivering  of  the 
mighty  ark  as  it  met  the  solid  hill  awoke  in  eight  hearts 
an  answering  flutter  of  hope,  a  thrill  of  courage.  The 
solid  ground  was  the  solid  covenant  of  God  beneath 
them.  Is  it  not  fit  that  the  day,  fraught  with  this  expe- 
rience of  the  divine  interposition,  should  appear  in  the 
list  of  sacred  days  ? 

The  next  incident  recorded  was  the  discovery  of  bare 
hill-tops  on  the  first  day  of  the  tenth  month.  This  was 
gratefully  recorded.  But  it  was  not  a  personal  experi- 
ence like  the  last.  It  did  not  come  home  to  their  very 
selves  like  the  shock  which  told  them,  perhaps  while 
offering  worship,  that  they  were  actually  resting  no  more 
on  water  but  on  safe  unmoving  land.  This  first  sight  of 
land  was  not  an  act  or  word  of  God  with  respect  to  them, 
nor  of  theirs  with  respect  to  God.  It  did  not,  in  fact, 
occur  on  a  sacred  day  but  three  days  after. 

The  fortieth  day,  including  this  or  the  thirty-nlntk 
day  after  this,  was  the  sixteenth  sacred  day  after  the 
grounding,  the  thirty-seventh  after  the  shutting  in.  Nine 
new  moons  had  appeared  in  their  turns.  Four  had  shone 
since  the  grounding.  During  nearly  four  months  the 
eight  had  known  that  they  were  safe.  They  were  on 
land.  But  they  were  in  prison,  though  prisoners  of  hope. 
How  intense  was  their  craving  for  some  intelligence  of 
the  lost  world,  for  some  news  of  the  shore  invisible  to 
them,  if  yet  there  was  a  shore  outside  their  walls.  At 
last  an  experiment  was  made.  A  raven  was  allowed  to 
fly  away,  and  afterward  a  dove.  The  man  of  exemplary 
faith  and  patience  sent  them  out.  But  the  creatures  in 
the  ark  had  been  put,  by  the  Lord,  under  his  care.  Did 
he  then  recklessly  expose  to  destruction  one  of  the  crea- 
tui'es  intrusted  to  him?  After  nine  months  of  patient 
submissive  waiting  did  his  curiosity  and  impatience  tempt 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  91 

him  to  overstep  the  bounds  of  duty  ?  Or  did  he  ask 
and  receive  permission  from  the  Owner  and  Source  of  all 
the  lives  in  his  charge?  The  day  chosen  for  this  act 
was  the  same  day  of  the  week  whose  association  with 
divine  revelation  and  interposition  had  been  already 
noted.  Did  he  not  ask  and  receive  divine  permission  on 
this  sacred  day  ? 

The  first  essay  resulted  in  nothing.  The  patriarch 
■waited  for  the  next  sacred  day.  He  waited  again  for 
the  next,  and  if  the  raven  went  out  a  week  before  the 
other  he  waited  yet  again.  The  repetition  of  Noah's  act 
after  each  sacred  interval  plainly  lifts  the  act  to  the  level 
of  faith.  There  is  an  evident  relation  between  the  act 
and  the  day.  For  not  only  did  he  wait  seven  days,  or, 
as  we  would  say,  until  the  seventh  day  after  each  essay, 
but  much  more,  he  waited  for  the  return  of  that  one  day 
of  the  seven  which  all  through  this  story  is  the  hallowed 
day. 

The  patience  of  the  patriarch  was  farther  tested.  From 
the  twig  brought  by  the  dove  he  learned  that  verdure 
was  springing  up.  Yet  he  made  no  effort  to  catch  a 
sight  of  it.  He  had  reason  to  believe  that  both  the  dove 
and  the  raven  had  found  their  customary  home  and  food. 
He  might  reasonably  expect  that  there  was  also  a  resting- 
place  and  food  for  man.  But  he  waited  four  weeks  until 
this  same  sacred  day  had  returned  the  fourth  time.  Then 
on  no  other  day  than  this  he  removed  the  roofing  and 
saw  the  land.  Did  he  break  away  from  his  magnificent 
patience  and  willfully  remove  the  ark's  covering  ?  Or 
did  he  take  this  day  for  another  act  of  faith  in  obedience 
to  a  divine  permission  or  command  ?  He  is  not  por- 
trayed as  a  man  of  perfect  character.  But  this  narrative 
limns  a  serenity  and  simplicity  of  faith  which  stands  as 
clear  as  a  statue  in  marble.  The  mind  which  cannot  see 
on  this  day,  preceded  and  followed  by  weeks  of  immov- 


92         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

able  calm,  the  act  of  reverent  confiding  obedience,  surely 
has  no  conception  of  the  ideal  attitude  of  a  child  of  God. 
Whatever  moved  Noah,  he  uncovered  the  ark  on  the 
sacred  day. 

For  the  first  time  he  saw  the  landscape.  Apparently 
the  surface  was  dry.  But  there  was  no  haste.  He  did 
not  act  upon  what  he  saw,  but  upon  what  he  was  bidden. 
For  eight  more  long  weeks  lie  did  not  appropriate  the 
promise,  thougli  it  lay  before  his  eyes,  and  at  his  feet. 
His  patience  had  its  perfect  work.  It  was  truly  sublime. 
At  last  came  the  divine  command  "  Go  forth."  The 
twenty-seventh  day  of  the  second  month  of  the  second 
year  of  the  flood  was  precisely  fifty-two  weeks  after  the 
embarkation.  On  that  same  day  of  the  week  on  which 
the  Lord  had  commanded  liis  servant  to  enter,  and  after- 
ward had  shut  him  in  ;  and,  still  later,  had  guided  his  un- 
wieldy vessel  to  a  favorable  spot  on  the  supporting  hill, 
—  He  now  released  him.  And  this  man,  who  had  en- 
tered the  ark  on  such  a  day,  had  once  and  again  sent  out 
a  winged  messenger  on  such  a  day,  and  on  such  a  day 
had  unroofed  the  ark,  —  now,  on  this  same  day  of  the 
week,  went  out  at  God's  word  and  offered  a  grateful  sac- 
rifice. 

The  facts  speak  for  themselves.  Here  we  find  the 
week  and  the  sacred  day  of  the  week  in  actual  succes- 
sion. The  narrative  may  not  be  given  in  order  to  record 
circumstances  relating  to  the  week  and  its  sacred  day. 
But  there  they  are,  the  web  of  which  the  story  is  woven. 

Why  then  did  not  the  writer  plainly  designate  each  of 
these  sacred  says  as  a  Sabbath  ?  The  answer  cannot  be 
uncertain.  They  were  not  Sabbaths,  in  the  sense  that 
word  carried  after  Moses'  day.  They  were  not  Sabbaths 
in  respect  to  the  obligation  of  rest.  Nor  were  they  Sab- 
baths in  respect  of  association  with  a  system  of  obser- 
vances.    At  Sinai  the  cessation  of  work  was  made  prom- 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  93 

inent.  The  labor  of  unroofing  the  ark  would  have  seemed 
a  sin  to  pious  Jews,  if  it  had  been  done  on  the  Sabbath. 
Priests  and  Levites,  of  course,  did  much  work  on  that 
day  about  the  sacred  precincts.  But  the  analogy  between 
their  work  and  Noah's  is  not  plain.  There  is,  however, 
no  duplicity  in  the  Scriptures.  The  special  emphasis  put 
upon  rest,  as  a  mark  or  feature  of  Israel's  Sabbath,  was 
not  felt  in  the  time  of  Noah.  Neither  could  the  patri- 
arch have  comprehended  the  series  of  related  Sabbaths 
and  Sabbatisms,  introduced  under  jMoses  to  illustrate  the 
seventh  day.  But  it  does  not  follow  that,  because  rest- 
ing was  not  made  the  marked  characteristic  of  the  early 
sacred  day,  therefore  no  cessation  or  diminution  of  labor 
was  customary.  Likewise  it  does  not  follow  that,  be- 
cause the  impressive  Sabbatic  System  was  not  in  exist- 
ence, therefore  no  definable  religious  significance  attached 
to  the  day.  It  was  not  Mosaic.  It  was  not  Jewish.  But 
it  was  sacred. 

Through  fifteen  Israelitish  centuries,  the  meaning  of 
Israel's  Sabbath  was  taught  by  an  extended  course  of  ob- 
ject lessons.  Can  we  now  exclude  these  lessons  from  our 
imaginations,  in  order  to  discover,  if  possible,  what  ideas 
were  before  Israel's  time  the  possession  of  believing  men, 
and  therefore  our  inheritance  ?  In  order  to  assist  in  this, 
the  observance  has  been  called  simply  the  sacred  day. 
Three  questions  now  arise.  The  first  is :  In  what  was 
this  day  observed ;  or,  how  could  it  have  been  distin- 
guished from  other  days?  The  second  is:  What  was  the 
object  or  intention  of  those  who  observed  the  day  ?  The 
last  is  :  What  did  this  day  mean  or  suggest  to  those  who 
observed  it  ? 

Taking  up  the  first  question,  how  was  the  day  observed 
or  distinguished,  we  are  certified  at  the  outset  that  in 
some  way  it  was  distinguished.  Here  is  the  record  of  its 
regular  succession.    The  facts  are  stated  incidentally,  but 


94         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

so  much  the  more  unequivocall3\  If  these  days  had 
been  observed  only  while  Noah  was  in  the  ark,  or  if 
he  had  then  begun  to  observe  them,  it  is  inconceivable 
that  such  a  fact  should  not  be  stated.  They  are  men- 
tioned incidentally,  because  taken  for  granted.  They  are 
taken  for  granted,  because  to  the  minds  of  Noah's  fam- 
ily, from  some  of  whom  the  story  must  have  been  derived, 
the  succession  of  these  sacred  days  was  a  perfectly  famil- 
iar matter,  as  familiar  as  the  succession  of  months  and 
years,  like  that  succession  continuing  from  an  indefinite 
past,  and,  as  little  as  that,  to  be  accounted  for  or  ex- 
plained. But  it  is  incredible,  impossible,  that  Noah,  or 
others  of  his  age,  could  keep  the  tally  of  these  days  by 
computation,  unless  there  was  something  to  distinguish 
each  as  it  came.  A  featureless  sacred  day  would  be  a 
coi-pse  turned  to  mould.  And  the  narrative  certifies  that 
the  features  of  the  day  were  religious.  That  is,  the  cir- 
cumstances which  distinguished  the  day  did  so  by  bring- 
ing to  men's  attention  the  tie  between  themselves  and 
See  study  Grod.  This  is  neccssarily  inferred  from  the  na- 
■^""  ture  of  the  week,  and  confirmed  by  the  story  of 

the  ark.  For  in  this  story  the  sacred  days  are  all  marked 
by  one  of  two  sets  of  actions.  On  the  one  hand  are  divine 
communications  and  interpositions.  On  the  other  hand 
is  seen  a  man  executing  specific  commands  of  God,  and 
appealing  to  Him.  So  far  then  as  any  details  concerning 
it  appear  on  the  face  of  the  record,  this  is  the  day  when 
the  loyal  among  men  were  made  sensible  of  the  favora- 
ble regard  of  God,  and  when  they  expressed  their  loyalty 
by  appropriate  acts  of  obedience  and  hope.  Whatever 
may  be  the  meaning  of  the  statement  that  in 
the  time  of  Enos  men  began  "  to  call  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord,"  it  is  plain  that  the  actual  fact  of  ap- 
peal was  not  unfamiliar.  Without  it  the  mission  of  the 
birds  is  incomprehensible.     To  presume  that  Noah  sent 


THE  PRIMEVAL  SACRED  DAY.  95 

them  out  in  willful,  reckless  curiosity,  and  by  chance,  or 
superstitiously,  on  the  sacred  day,  —  or  to  suppose  that 
he  so  acted  in  any  other  mood  than  that  of  reverent,  fil- 
ial appeal  to  the  Providence  of  One  known  and  trusted, 
—  is  to  misread  not  merely  the  religious  feeling,  but  also 
the  human  sense  of  the  story. 

The  details  of  daily  life  in  the  ark  were  exceptional. 
So  the  experiences  of  these  sacred  days  were  exceptional. 
Never  before  or  after  in  their  lives  could  any  of  the  eight 
voyagers  have  received  just  such  tokens  of  God's  regard, 
or  have  been  able  to  obey  Him  or  appeal  to  Him  by  just 
such  acts.  We  have  just  one  glimpse  of  a  sacred  day 
on  the  land,  and  just  one  record  of  an  act  which,  from 
its  nature,  might  ordinarily  distinguish  every  sacred  day. 
On  that  day  when  Noah  left  the  ark,  the  fifty-second 
sacred  day  after  the  flood  began,  he  "  builded  an  altar 
to  the  Lord,"  and  "  offered  burnt-offerings  on  the  altar." 
But  this  was  not  the  first  sacrifice,  as  it  was  not  the  first 
sacred  day.  It  is,  however,  the  only  passage  in  which 
the  sacrifice  is  actually  associated  with  such  a  day.  This 
association  proves  that  the  offering  and  the  day  were 
suitable  each  to  the  other ;  and  God's  accept- 
ance is  affirmed.  But  the  force  of  this  associa- 
tion will  be  more  strongly  felt  when  the  origin  and  the 
factors  of  sacrifice  are  considered.  Sacrifice  is  the  slay- 
ing of  a  living  creature  for  the  purpose  of  affecting  God. 
When  inanimate  substances  are  laid  on  the  altar,  it  is 
properly  an  offering  or  gift  (in  the  Hebrew  "  minchah  "), 
not  a  sacrifice.  But  since  in  any  case  the  offerer  devotes 
to  God  something  which  might  be  kept  for  himself,  both 
acts  are  called  in  Genesis  "  offerings."     In  the  ^      ... 

o  _      Gen.  4 :  3-5. 

Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  both  are  called  sacri- 
fices.    But  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus  they  are 
clearly  distinguished.     The  offering  of  Abel  was  in  the 
proper   sense  a  sacrifice.     As   such   it  was   accepted  of 


96         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

God.     As  such,  moreover,  it  was  an  act  of  faith.     But  if 
Abel  was  not  in  some  way  taught  by  God  him- 

Ileb.  11:  4.  .  J  O  J 

self  to  do  this  act,  then  the  statement  that  it 
was  an  act  of  faith  would  be  nonsense.  If  he  did  not 
have  a  divine  warrant,  then  he  simply  presumed  or 
guessed  that  a  living  victim,  slaughtered,  would  please 
the  Creator  better  than  an  offering  of  fruits.  To  sup- 
pose that  one  guess  of  Abel's  rather  than  another  guess 
of  Cain's  could  be  specially  accepted  of  God,  and  quoted 
in  later  Scripture  after  many  thousand  years  as  an  act  of 
faith,  is  to  trifle  with  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  that  sacrifice  was  ordained 
of  God. 

Now  the  idea  of  a  sacrifice  contains  these  four  factors  : 
the  time,  the  place,  the  person,  the  victim.  When,  there- 
fore, sacrifice  was  ordained,  it  was  ordained  in  terms  cor- 
respondhig  to  these  four  factors.  That  is,  men  were 
taught  authoritatively  when,  where,  by  whom,  and  of 
what  God  ordained  the  offering.  There  is  some  evidence 
indicating  that  each  one  of  these  factors  was  definitely 
fixed.  It  is  repugnant  to  the  whole  tenor  of  this  history, 
and  of  Scripture,  to  believe  that  any  of  them  were  left 
free  to  chance  or  to  caprice.  In  regard  to  the  victim  it 
is  certain  that  instruction  was  given.  For  Abel's  choice 
of  a  victim  met  the  divine  approval,  and  therefore  he 
must  have  been  provided  with  capacity  to  know  what 
God  would  approve.  In  regard  to  the  persons  who 
should  sacrifice,  there  is  a  suggestion  of  some  personal 
privilege  existing  by  divine  warrant,  when  Melchizedek 
is  entitled  "  priest  of  the  most  high  God." 
Since  Abel  sacrificed  as  an  act  of  faith,  he  sacri- 
ficed as  an  appointed  priest.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
he  was  divinely  appointed  the  priest  for  his  father's  fam- 
ily. Certainly  he  was  authorized  to  take  the  office,  and 
took  it   "  by  faith."     In  regard  to  place,  doubtless   an 


THE   PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  97 

altar  of  rongli  stones  or  lieaped-up  earth  was  prescribed. 
There  was,  moreover,  one  locality  where  some 
visible  display  of  the    divine   majesty,    during  25;  Deiit!  ' 
all   the  centuries  before  the  flood,  barring  the 
entrance  to  Eden,  may  have  been  accessible  for  this  ser- 
vice.    In  regard  to  time,  the  margin  of  our  Bible  tells  us 
that  Abel's  offering  was  made  "at  the  end  of 
daj's."     If  such  offerings  continued  to  be  made, 
we  may  safely  infer  that  each  was  likewise  made  "  at  the 
end  of  days  "  appointed.     In  the  only  case  in  which  the 
precise  time  of  a  sacrifice  is  noted  it  took  place  on  the 
sacred  day.     The  first  sacrifice  noted  took  place  "  at  the 
end  of  days."     We  are  forced  to  believe  that  if  that 
sacrifice  was  repeated  it  was  always  at  the  end  of  set 
periods,  corresponding  to  "the  end  of  days."     Bat  such 
periods  ivere  kept,  and  the  day  at  the  end  of  each  ivas 
marked  by  something.     What  was  this  something  if  not 
a  sacrifice  ? 

It  is  possible  that  here  may  be  found  a  reason  for  the 
silence  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  concerning  the  name  of 
the  sacred  day.  It  is  possible  that  the  sacrifice  was  so 
prominent  a  feature  of  the  day  as  to  stand  in  the  general 
thought  for  the  day.  In  the  Israelitish  age  sacrifice  was 
disconnected  with  the  Sabbath,  and  the  feature  of  sus- 
pended work  became  its  characteristic.  If  in  the  patri- 
archal age  it  was  preeminently  the  day  for  a  sacrifice, 
but  afterwards  the  day  specially  dissociated  with  sacri- 
fice, then  the  patriarchal  stories  which  mention  sacrifices 
but  do  not  describe  the  sacred  day  by  any  other  charac- 
teristic, though  they  show  incidentally  that  it  was  main- 
tained in  regular  sequence,  and  somehow  distinguished 
religiously,  would  be  precisely  accurate.  More  than 
that :  Granting  these  premises,  then  the  statements  of 
Genesis  would  present  the  facts  accurately  not  only  as 
viewed  contemporaneously,  but  also  when  minutely  stud- 


98         EIGHT  STUDIES   OE   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

ied  in  later  times.  And,  granting  these  same  premises, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  in  what  other  form  the  precise  facts 
could  be  accurately  recorded  for  all  time. 

Another  mark  or  feature  of  the  sacred  day  is  suggested 
by  the  transmission  of  these  histories.  How  did  Moses 
obtain  them  ?  Either  he  learned  them  directly  through 
revelation  from  God ;  or,  having  received  them  in  the 
ordinary  way,  the  divine  guidance  merely  availed  to  ena- 
ble him  to  record  so  much  of  them  in  such  language  as 
God  approved.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  if  he  had  learned 
these  things  by  direct  revelation,  he  certainly  would  have 
put  that  fact  on  record.  No  oi>€  could  be  more  careful 
than  he  to  bring  forward  the  divine  authority.  His  one 
Num.  20:  f^^^li^^i's  to  do  SO  was  indeed  accounted  a  grave 
''~^^-  offense.     If  these  most  ancient  stories  had  come 

to  him  in  that  way,  he  would  assuredly  have  prepared 
them  with,  "  The  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,"  or,  "  Thus 
saitli  the  Lord."  On  the  other  hand,  the  archaic  lan- 
guage of  these  stories,  and  their  simplicity  of  thought, 
plainly  imply  that  they  are  fragments  much  older  than 
the  narrative  of  Moses'  own  times.  And  if  these  were 
ancient  stories  in  Moses'  day,  reaching  him  not  by  reve- 
lation but  by  ordinary  human  means,  something  is  inev- 
itabl}'  to  be  inferred  w'hich  bears  upon  the  present  ques- 
tion. It  is  not  important  whether  they  were  written  or 
not.  If  written  they  wei'e  read,  if  oral  they  were  told 
over  and  over,  again  and  again,  down  all  through  the 
long  vista.  The  fact  that  they  were  not  forgotten  is 
proof  that  they  were  not  unreiterated.^  Moreover,  they 
were  not  corrupted.     They  did  not  swell  with  childish 

^  In  this  age  it  might  be  supposed  that  a  document  long  buried 
and  forgotten  might  be  discovered  and  proven  authentic  history. 
But  it  is  preposterous  to  suppose  that  Moses  or  anybody  in  his  age 
could  have  accepted  such  a  document  without  a  divine  warrant  which 
would  necessarily  have  been  added  to  this  text.  Of  course  there  is 
an  argument  from  the  existence  of  Mesopotamian  records  not  brought 
forward  because  not  needed. 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED  DAY.  99 

details.  They  did  not  ran  into  any  morass  of  contradic- 
tions. Tiiey  did  not  become  foul  witli  any  taint  of  poly- 
theism or  idolatry  or  deification  of  sun,  moon,  or  stars. 
Wlien  they  are  compared  with  any  other  primeval  tradi- 
tions which  have  reached  us,  we  must  conclude  not  only 
that  they  were  reiterated,  but  also  that  they  were  re- 
iterated in  circumstances  which  kept  men  in  mind  of 
their  own  tie  to  the  one  only  God.  The  solemn  sacrifice 
ordinarily  occurring  every  seventh  day  would  afford  such 
circumstances.  If  their  rehearsal  was  through  these  ages 
a  feature  of  the  sacrificial  day  to  those  who  continued 
loyal  to  their  Creator,  then  the  preservation  of  these 
stories  is  accounted  for,  and  not  otherwise  can  it  with 
our  present  knowledge  be  explained. 

It  may  not  be  amiss,  therefore,  to  attempt  a  provisional 
delineation  of  what  the  sacred  day  may  have  been  in  the 
actual  customs  of  the  patriarchs.  The  sketch  may  be 
taken  for  what  the  reader  thinks  it  is  worth.  It  is  pre- 
sumed that  the  typical  occupation  Avas  pastoral.  Of 
course  there  was  some  agriculture  and  some  handicraft, 
but,  relatively,  little.  Society  was  organized,  among  the 
faithful  at  least,  by  families.  If  there  were  any  germs  of 
civil  life,  they  seem  to  have  developed  in  the  line  rather  of 
Cain  than  of  Seth.  The  loyal  line  from  Abel  to  Jacob 
were  apparently  occupied  with  their  flocks  and  herds,  other 
work  being  subordinate  and  transient.  When 
the  sacred  day  came  round,  tillage  and  handiwork 
doubtless  stopped,  not  by  an}'^  law,  but  from  interest  and 
employment  in  the  day's  special  functions.  Care  of  the 
animals  necessarily  went  on  ;  but  all  who  could  possibly 
be  spared  from  this  duty  would  spontaneously  gather 
with  their  chief  in  some  central  part  of  the  village  or 
encampment.  Here  would  be  piled  up  the  earth  or 
stones  serving  for  an  altar.  Here  all  would  be  busy  in 
preparation.  Wood  and  water  must  be  supplied.  Thin 
cakes  ofi  coarse  flour  and  other  food  must  be  made  ready. 


100      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

The  victim  must  be  chosen,  slain,  dressed,  and  properly 
severed.  At  length  the  offering  would  be  made.  As 
the  flames  rose  from  the  altar,  solemn  though  simple 
prayer  would  be  addressed  to  God.  Perhaps  also,  now 
Jude  14:  ^^  later,  words  of  prophecy  or  of  exhortation 
2^pet.  2:5.  would  be  heard.  Possibl}^,  on  some  grand  oc- 
casion, a  divine  monition  might  in  some  way  be 
given  to  some  ministrant.  Meanwhile  the  altar  would 
not  have  received  the  whole  of  the  victim.  Part  of  the 
sacrifice  would  have  been  cooked  for  the  sacrificial  feast, 
of  which  all  would  partake.  This  might  be  the  only  occa- 
sion when  flesh  would  ordinarily  be  eaten.  It  would,  in 
that  case,  be  a  feast  to  which  full  justice  would  be  done. 
When  all  had  been  fed,  the  patriarch,  or  some  one  at  his 
bidding,  would  rise  and  rehearse  the  sacred  stories  that 
had  been  handed  down  :  the  creation,  the  sin,  the  exile, 
the  murder,  the  divided  families,  and  much,  perhaps,  be- 
side that  which  has  been  pi'eserved  to  us.  Such  a  day 
would  be  full  of  enjoyment  from  dawn  to  dusk.  There 
would  be  no  compulsion,  but  only  a  privilege,  in  partici- 
pation. No  conception  of  being  debarred  from  work  and 
forced  to  rest  could  be  formed  in  any  mind.  The  assem- 
blage, the  sacrifice,  the  calling  upon  God,  the  feast,  the 
rehearsal,  —  these  would  be  the  only  circumstances  to 
mark  the  day  upon  men's  thoughts. 

Why  should  they  maintain  such  a  sacred  day  ?  This 
is  the  second  question.  Whatever  their  observance  was, 
why  should  they  have  it,  not  at  any  time  they  pleased,  but 
every  seventh  day,  keeping  count  of  the  weeks  ?  There 
can  be  only  one  answer.  The  weeks  rested  on  nothing 
but  divine  prescription.  Their  observance  by  the  patri- 
archs could  have  implied  nothing  less  than  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  bond  between  themselves  and  God.  It 
was  the  patriarch's  profession  of  loyalty. 

But  can  any  typical  meaning  be  found  in  such  an  ob- 
servance  of   such  a  day  ?     This  is  the  third  question. 


THE  PRIMEVAL   SACRED   DAY.  101 

What,  if  anything,  did  it  mean  to  tliese  worshipers? 
What  did  it  teach  them?  Wliat  conceptions  of  God's 
character  and  of  his  purposes  did  it  tend  to  form  in 
them  ? 

The  great  lesson  of  the  antedikivian  age  was  clearly 
punishment.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  material 
elements  of  the  flaming  sword  at  the  gate  of  Eden,  it 
flashed,  plainly  enough,  wrath  tigainst  disobedience  to 
God.  Punishment  was  the  burden  of  Enoch's  jude,  14, 
prophetic  utterances,  and  of  Noah's.  It  found  2Pet.  2:5. 
its  climax  in  the  flood.  It  therefore  must  have  obc^rent,^'^i 
been  the  first  conception  of  the  meaning  of  sac-  ^'^''  ^'  ^^' 
rifice.  The  idea  of  deliverance  from  retribution  by  a 
substitute  was  hardly  learned  after  ages  had  passed.  To 
Cain  and  to  Abel  alike  it  may  have  seemed  merely  that 
God's  just  wrath  required  the  offering  of  that  which  was 
valuable  for  human  use.  The  heathen  (with  some  ex- 
ceptions ^)  have  never  got  beyond  this  idea.  And  if  this 
were  all  that  sacrifice  meant,  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  Cain's  offering  should  not  be  as  acceptable  as  his 
brother's.  It  was  Abel's  obedient  faith  that  slew  a  liv- 
ing creature.  It  was  not  that  he  knew  why  the  living 
creature  was  required  rather  than  the  inanimate,  but 
that  he  believed  the  word  of  God,  and  obeyed  Hira.  In 
due  time,  as  soon  as  men  were  ready  and  able  to  receive 
it,  the  doctrine  of  substitution  was  fully  set  forth.  But 
already,  and  from  the  first,  certain  associations  with  the 
sacrifice  would  evidently  develop  the  ideas  of  God's  be- 
nevolence and  of  human  fellowship.  The  feast  was,  of 
course,  a  material  rather  than  a  spiritual  blessing.  But 
tliey  would  feel  that  it  was  a  real  blessing  from  Him 
whose  wrath  and  judgment  were  so  dreadful.  They 
would  also  feel  that  this  blessing  was  a  bond  of  union 
among  all  who  sat  as  it  were  at  God's  table.     And  they 

^  A  few,  like  Socrates,  seem  to  have  grasped  the  idea  of   substitu 
tion,  and  with  it  to  have  shown  something  like  a  vital  faith. 


102      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

would  feel  that  the  blessing  and  the  fellowship  were  real- 
ized through  the  victim  and  the  altar  fire. 

Logically,  the  idea  of  punishment  awaiting  the  apos- 
tate involved  the  complementaiy  idea  of  favor  to  the 
faithful.  But  we  cannot  suppose  that  logical  inferences 
would  be  drawn  out  by  primeval  simplicity.  Its  imag- 
ination must  have  been  limited  by  the  field  of  its  experi- 
ence. Thei'efore  the  more  would  a  weekly  recital  of  di- 
vine interpositions  and  promises  crystallize  into  broad 
conceptions  of  God's  relations  to  them,  present  and  fu- 
ture. We  do  not  know  how  much  more  there  was  to 
repeat  beside  the  fragments  which  introduce  our  Scrip- 
tures. But  these  recitals  would  have  made  them  familiar 
with  many  ideas  beside  God's  anger  against  sin.  He 
would  be  felt  to  be  interested  in  all  human  affairs  and  in 
all  individual  conduct.  And,  vague  as  the  first  promise 
seems  to  us,  it  would  assuredly  form  in  their  imaginations 
a  Hero  to  come  to  them,  of  them,  and  a  victorious  conflict 
with  the  author  of  evil.  Thus  the  earliest,  perhaps  un- 
written, Scriptures  would  teach  men  at  once  to  look  up- 
ward and  to  look  forward  to  God.  Unconsciously,  grad- 
ually, slowly,  but  surely,  the  sacrifice  and  the  stories,  the 
object  lessons  repeated  every  seventh  day,  would  enable 
men  to  formulate  these  elementary  religious  ideas :  The 
Fatherhood  of  God  ;  the  brotherhood  of  the  faithful ;  the 
sacrifice  1  as  the  medium  of  both;  the  benevolence  of 
the  divine  providence ;  and  the  Coming  Hero,  Victor 
over  the  evil  one,  who  had  brought  in  death. 

1  The  sacrificial  feast  was  a  traditional  practice  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  It  was  an  essential  element  of  the  Passover,  which  was  at 
once  a  link  between  the  Aaronic  and  the  earlier  sacrifices,  and  also 
the  complete  and  re])i'esentative  sacrifice  of  the  Aaronic  system.  In 
that  system  all  the  other  sacrifices  explained  or  analyzed  the  Pass- 
over. Our  Lord,  to  whom  all  the  sacrifices  referred,  was  preemi- 
nently the  paschal  Lamb.  The  fellowship  of  the  sacrificial  feast  has 
thus  been  preserved,  not  only  through  the  Jewish  Passover,  but  on- 
ward through  the  Lord's  Supper  of  the  Church. 


STUDY  V. 

THE   MOSAIC   SABBATH. 

"  A  delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honorable."  —  Is.  Iviii.  13. 

The  value  of  the  national  customs  and  fundamental 
laws  of  any  people  can  be  fairly  judged,  in  most  cases,  by 
the  moral  development  which  that  people,  after  the  lapse 
of  a  considerable  time,  have  attained.  But  the  judgment 
is  fair,  so  far  only  as  these  customs  and  laws  have  been 
operative.  It  cannot  be  rigorously  applied  to  such  as 
have  been  wholly  or  partially  in  abeyance,  and  perhaps 
known  only  or  chiefly  by  books  and  tradition.  On  this 
general  basis,  how^ever,  an  instructive  comparison  of  moral 
results  might  be  drawn,  between  the  fifteen  hundred 
years  of  Israel  from  Moses  to  the  Herods  and  the  slightly 
shorter  period  of  Rome  from  her  foundation  to  her  fall. 
But  the  true  estimate  of  Israel's  constitution  must  be 
based  upon  what  it  was  plainly  designed  to  effect.  It 
did  not  have  a  proper  trial.  It  was  never  for  any  long 
time  full}'  observed.  Indeed  it  does  not  certainly  ap- 
pear that  it  was  ever  enforced  in  all  its  details  or  in  all 
its  principles.  Probably  its  details  were  most  accurately 
carried  out  during  the  latter  years  of  Joshua  or  in  the 
reign  of  Solomon.  Doubtless  its  principles  were  most 
practically  expounded  by  the  great  prophets  in  the  time 
of  Hezekiah  and  his  immediate  successors.  But  the  law, 
in  its  entirety,  could  not  be  observed  during  periods  of 
internal  commotion,  or  after  the  division  into  two  king- 
doms, or  under  foreign  domination.     On  the  other  hand, 


104         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

however,  if  tlie  law  bad  not  been  willfully  neglected 
2Chron.  36:  fi^'st,  the  Calamities,  which  subsequently  made 
Jeremiah  ^^^  tliorougli  woi'king  impracticable,  would  not 
34:13,14.  liave  occuiTed.  For  these  calamities  had  been 
threatened  as  a  punishment  of  disobedience,  and  com- 
plete exemption  from  them  had  been  promised  as  a  re- 
ward of  faithfulness.  National  (and  not  merely  individ- 
ual) disobedience  began  in  fact  before  the  settlement  of 
the  nation  in  their  own  territory  gave  opportunity  for 
putting  their  whole  system  in  operation.  In  order  to  re- 
j)air  the  moral  damage  caused  by  national  transgression, 
and  to  fill  up  the  educational  void  caused  by  national 
neglect,  a  long  series  of  special  agents,  such  as  judges 
and  prophets,  were  raised  up.  In  the  long  run,  the  di- 
vine purpose  was  wisely  and  successfully  worked  out,  de- 
spite Israel's  unfaithfulness,  which  wrecked  their  national 
career.  But  the  law  cannot  be  made  wholly  responsible 
for  the  nation's  final  condition,  either  in  respect  to  their 
conceptions  of  religious  truths  or  to  their  general  morals. 
The  law  had,  indeed,  a  great  influence.  But  so  also  had 
the  institution  of  royalty,  and  their  intercourse  with 
foreign  nations,  and  especially  the  grand  array  of  the 
prophets.  What  the  law  alone  would  have  done  for  the 
people,  had  it  been  kept,  must  be  learned  from  itself. 
Moreover,  in  view  of  the  unity  of  both  the  whole  divine 
revelation  and  also  of  the  whole  divine  plan  of  redemp- 
tion, this  law,  tlie  organizing  instrument  of  the  nation, 
the  introduction  to  the  entire  development  of  the  organic 
body  of  the  Church,  must  be  expected  to  contain  the  germ 
and  nucleus  of  every  later  revelation,  and  of  every  later 
experience  or  function  of  God's  people. 

The  law,  that  is  the  Mosaic  system,  could  not  be  es»- 
tablished  before  Moses'  day,  because  it  was  a  national 
system,  and  required  the  existence  of  a  nation  to  receive 
it.  National  existence,  again,  implies  two  things  :  a  race 
and  a  territory.     Therefore,  in  the  unfolding  of  divine 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  105 

providence,  these  two  things  were  provided.  During  four 
centuries,  by  natural  descent,  and  by  accretion,^  a  race 
sprung  up  who  were  bound  together  by  ancestral  tradi- 
tions, and  peculiarly  separated  from  other  families  of 
men.  During  theee  centuries,  also,  there  was  preserved 
the  expectation  of  a  certain  territory,  assured  to  them  for 
an  inheritance,  through  a  repeated  promise  of  God  to  their 
ancestors.  They  had  been  taught  to  think  of  Canaan 
as  their  land,  generations  before  they  entered  it.  They 
were  kept  in  tutelage  in  Egypt  during  their  national 
minority.  But  the  land  was  theirs  by  the  divine  decree, 
and  when  they  reached  the  full  age  of  national  indepen- 
dence they  were  authorized  and  bidden  to  take  possession 
of  their  own.  Thus  it  was  their  land  of  promise.  He 
gave  them  the  land,  who  had  chosen  and  fostered  their 
race.  So  He  gave  them  the  legislation  which  He  adapted 
to  their  race  and  to  their  land.  No  other  race  had  a  part 
in  it.  It  could  not  be  extended  over  other  lands.  The 
soil,  the  climate,  the  distances,  the  terrain  of  Palestine 
were  involved  in  Israel's  constitution.  The  genealogical 
relations  of  the  nation's  clans  were  by  it  inseparably 
joined  to  the  various  districts  of  the  land.  And  this 
whole  body  of  law  contemplated  a  nation  of  farmers. 

These  preliminary  statements  may  be  summed  up 
thus :  The  thoughts  or  designs  of  God  in  the  Mosaic 
legislation  must  be  learned  from  the  legislation  itself, 
according  to  the  record  of  it  sanctioned  by  inspiration, 

1  "  Accretion."  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  each  in  turn  possessed 
a  large  retinue.  See  Gen.  xiv.  14,  xx.  14,  xxvi.  14,  19,  xxx.  43, 
xxxviii.  12.  Abraham's  three  hundred  and  eighteen  fighting  men 
implied  a  camp  of  fifteen  hundred  or  more.  Jacob  and  his  male  de- 
scendants numbered,  on  entering  Egypt,  seventy  souls.  But  the 
■whole  number  of  their  tribe  as  it  may  properly  be  called,  even  'hen 
must  have  been  thousands.  Many  joined  them  at  the  Exodus.  See 
Ex.  xiii.  38.  See  also  an  article  in  the  N.  Y.  Observer  of  October 
5,  1882,  entitled  "  Pharoah  and  Joseph." 


106      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

and  not  according  to  the  practices  of  an  nnfaitliful  peo- 
ple. And  the  legishition  must  be  regarded  as  adapted 
to  the  territory  of  Canaan  only,  and  its  inhabitants  as 
chiefly  engaged  in  agriculture.  Sufficient  illustrations  of 
these  statements  will  appear  in  the  progress  of  these 
studies. 

The  Mosaic  religions  system  of  institutions  was  dual. 
On  one  side  it  proposed  an  elaborate  scheme  of  sacrifices. 
On  the  other  side  was  an  equally  elaborate  schedule  of 
sacred  times.  The  original  sacrifice,  and  the  original 
sacred  day,  which  perhaps  was  known  onl}'^  as  the  time 
of  sacrifice,  were  eidarged,  and  as  it  were  illuminated,  so 
as  to  present  all  the  details  of  their  symbolic  meaning 
and  all  the  varieties  of  their  practical  effect  on  the  con- 
duct of  life.  Thus  the  whole  sj^stem  while  a  starting- 
point  was  also  a  development.  The  organic  individuality 
of  the  Church  began  there  in  the  same  sense  that  the 
organic  individuality  of  a  fruit  begins  in  a  blossom.  But 
the  blossom  grows  as  a  part  of  the  tree.  Botanists  say 
that  it  consists  of  specialized  leaves.  In  the  inchoate 
period  blossom  and  leaves  are  indistinguishable.  They 
all  appear  only  as  leaves.  In  the  period  of  development 
they  manifest  their  difference  of  form  and  of  function. 
When  the  function  of  the  leaf  is  fulfilled  its  form  vanishes. 
But  the  function  of  the  blossom  has  no  end,  and  though 
its  form  ma}"^  change  to  that  of  the  fruit  its  life  is  per- 
sistent. The  Scriptures  compare  the  kingdom  of  God  to 
this  tree  life.  The  root  of  all,  the  active  beginning  of 
the  whole  economy  of  redemption,  of  the  whole  plan  of 
God's  mercy  to  man,  is  a  promise.  It  has  been  all 
through,  and  is  still  in  this  day,  the  administration  of  a 
promise.  Hence  the  mental  and  spiritual  attitude  toward 
God,  of  devout  men  in  all  ages,  is  properly  described  as 
"  faith."  This  promise  is  twofold,  like  the  main  tap 
root  and  the  fibrous  roots  of  the  plant.     "  He  will  come  " 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  107 

is  tlie  one  root  of  all.  The  first  promise  relates  to  what 
He  will  do  and  suffer.  The  second  spreads  out  to  all 
nations.  The  original  promise,  however,  involved  a  dual 
conception,  first  of  suffering^  b}^  a  typical  man,  and  then 
of  an  expected  time  when  this  man  should  conquer  by 
his  suffering.  Very  likely  the  first  men  thought  of  crea- 
tion 2  and  of  punitive  death  as  the  only  noticeable  asser- 
tions of  divine  majesty.  But  however  vague  and  general 
were  their  ideas  at  the  first,  the  germs  of  all  were  con- 
tained in  them.  Step  by  step  all  would  be  learned.  At 
length  the  posterity  of  Adam  would  be  able  to  think  of 
atonement  and  to  hope  for  eternal  life  in  the  City  of 
God. 

In  the  idea  of  punishment  for  sin,  so  forcibly  impressed 
on  the  primeval  ages,  was  logically  involved  the  idea  of 
blessing  for  faithfulness.  In  the  promise  to  Abraham 
the  blessing  with  its  completeness  through  the  coming 
one  was  exclusively  mentioned.  Thus  the  earlier  promise 
to  Eve  was  rounded  out  to  full  logical  symmetry.  The 
utterance  of  the  second  promise  was  the  starting-point  of 
the  Hebrew  nation,  as  the  appearance  of  that  promised 
seed  was  the  nation's  terminus  and  goal.  This  promise 
was  repeated  with  the  utmost  emphasis  to  Isaac  and  to 
Jacob,  and  is  recorded  five  times  in  the  book  of  ^p^  12 :  3 ; 
Genesis.  It  furnished  the  key  to  the  Mosaic  \f:^2i^\\ 
law.     For,  as  the  Apostle  Paul  argues  to  the  ^®  •  •^*- 

1  "  Suffering."  Both  the  seed  and  the  serpent  would  be  bruised, 
but  the  serpent  Avas  not  of  our  race  like  the  seed. 

'^  "  Creation."  The  creative  week  represented  a  tinie'when  God's 
will  was  the  only  energy  throughout  all  nature.  The  old  sacred  day 
referred  to  that  time  until  men  could  be  educated  to  think  of  the 
coming  day  when  God's  will  shall  again  be  supreme.  As  we  shall 
see,  it  provided  for  that  education.  Meanwhile  it  is  strangely  for- 
gotten sometimes  that  the  old  Sabbath  should  be  taken  as  referring 
not  so  much  to  the  material  as  to  the  spiritual  aspect  of  creation  ; 
that  is,  not  so  much  to  the  generation  of  the  Kosmos  as  to  the  har- 
monious supremacy  of  the  will  of  God. 


108       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Galatians,  the  law,  which  was  also  of  God,  could  not  be 
out  of  harmony  with  the  promise  of  God.  It 
was  designed  to  effect  the  fulfillment  of  that 
promise.  But  the  nation  chosen  to  be  its  instrument, 
though  holy  as  compared  with  the  heathen,  were  yet 
transgressors.  Being  what  they  were,  the  prob- 
lem was  to  effect  through  them  the  blessing  to 
all  nations.  This  problem  contained  two  members,  the 
end  and  the  means.  That  is,  it  was  necessary  to  develop 
in  the  minds  of  men  proper  ideas  of  what  the  state  of 
blessedness  should  be,  and  at  the  same  time  to  place 
before  them  and  around  them  the  means  and  influences 
by  which  they  might  become  capable  and  fit  for  that 
state.  Hence  the  duality  of  the  law.  The  state  of  recon- 
ciliation to  God  was  symbolized  by  its  Sabbatic  system  ;  ^ 
the  means  of  reconciliation  by  its  sacrificial  system.^  The 
sapling  now  became  a  tree.  It  had  been  able  heretofore 
to  produce  leaves  only.  Potential  blossoms  indeed  they 
were  as  well  as  leaves,  but  the  blossoms  were  not  indi- 
vidually manifest.  Now  they  are  distinguished  forever, 
and  can  never  again,  even  by  the  ignorant,  be  confounded. 
So  the  sacrifice,  in  which  the  primeval  sacred  day  seems 
to  have  been  blended,  was  now  forever  separated.  The 
duality  became  manifest.  The  two  systems  were  made 
entirely  independent  of  each  other.  They  met  in  very  few 
points.  In  many  respects  they  were  strongly  contrasted. 
Sacrifice  was  an  act.    The  Sabbath  was  a  state.    Sacrifice 

1  By  "  Sabbatic  system  "  is  meant  bere  the  whole  legishition  con- 
cerning the  observance  of  various  periods  called  Sabbaths.  By 
"  sacrificial  system  "  is  meant  the  whole  legislation  relating  to  sacri- 
fices, priesthood,  tabernacle,  etc.,  dealt  with  here  only  incidentally. 
By  "  symbolize  "  is  meant  to  set  forth  as  an  object  lesson,  or  a  type, 
intended  through  actual  and  continued  experience  to  develop  either 
certain  spiritual  ideas  not  originally  entertained  in  the  consciousness, 
or,  at  !east,  to  develop  the  capacity  for  comprehending  such  ideas 
when  presented. 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  109 

involved  suffering.     The  Sabbath  was  unconnected  with 
suffering.     Sacrifice  was  related  to  the  ordinary  circum- 
stances of  life.     It  answered  to  its  occupations,  its  con- 
tingencies, its  joj'-,  its  contrition,  its  pomp.     The  heathen 
also  had  it.     It  belonged  to  this  world  of  sin.     The  Sab- 
bath was  no  part  of  ordinary  life.    It  was  not  the  product 
of  any  of  its  experiences.     The  heathen  and  the  apostate 
had  never  any  part  in  it.     In  no  feature  did  it  suggest 
sin  or  penalty.     It  was  expressly  designated  the  sign  of 
union  between  God  and  men.     But  the  great  festivals  of 
spring  and  autumn  were  fixed  with  no  regard  for  the 
occurrence  of  a  Sabbath.     Pentecost  came  on  the  day 
after.     No  sacrifices  were  peculiar  to  the  Sabbath.     No 
special  manifestations  or  revelations  from  God  were  as- 
signed to  it.     The   Urim    and   Thummim   answered  no 
more  readily  than  on  other  days.     The  sin-offering,  or 
burnt-offering,  or  peace-offering  of  individual  piety  had 
no  encouragement  on  this  day.     Apparently  they  were 
inhibited  by  the  Sabbatic  regulations.     Perhaps  the  most 
effectual  means  of  all  for  depriving  the  Sabbath  of  all 
association  with  sacrifice  was  the  prohibition  of  all  sacri- 
fices in  any  other  place  than  the  tabernacle  pre-  pg,,^  ^i  ■. 
cincts.     Thus  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  if  ^'■'^'• 
the  nation  were  perfectly  obedient,  could  see  a  sacrifice 
only  three  times  a  year  during  their  attendance  at  the 
festivals.     They  could  never  slay  the  victim  with  their 
own  hands  at  their  own  homes.    But  to  their  own  homes, 
bringing  rest  for  their  own  hands,  the  Sabbaths  came, 
vacant  of  any  dependence  on  the  bloody  rite.     At  the 
festivals,  moreover,  the  appointed  offerings  went  on   in 
due  routine,  no  matter  when  in  their  course  the  Sabbath 
occurred.     Its  arrival  may  have  restrained  private  offer- 
ings, but  did  not  in    any   way  affect  those   that  were 
public.     There  was  one   exception  only,  and   it  empha- 
sized this  rule.     For  the  one  lamb  which  was  sacrificed 


110        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAT. 

every  morning  and  every  afternoon,  tvs^o  lambs  ^  were 
offered  each  morning,  and  the  same  each  afternoon  of 
the  Sabbath.  By  all  this  contrast  there  was  set  before 
Israel  this  truth,  a  grand  truth  for  that  age,  that  the 
state  of  blessedness  promised  was  entirely  distinct  from 
the  means  by  which  Abraham's  Seed  should  achieve  it 
for  men. 

While  thus  on  the  one  hand  so  sharply  separated  ^  from 
the  sacrifice,  on  the  other  hand  the  Sabbath  received  two 
new  features,  the  enforced  rest  and  the  connected  Sab- 
batic times.  As  already  noticed,  it  is  not  to  be  presumed 
that  there  was  no  cessation  of  labor  on  the  patriarchal 
day.  There  certainly  was  not  such  a  cessation  as  marked 
the  Mosaic  Sabbath.  The  difference  lay  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  rest,  and  this  enforcement  had  two  sides.  It 
was  a  function  of  the  civic  or  national  avithorit}^,  and  it 
was  appointed  as  the  sign  of  national  or  public  loyalty 
to  God.  Such  a  Sabbath  could  not  exist  until  the  nation 
had  become  self-maintaining.  For  herein  the  nation  was 
treated  as  an  organic  unit.  It  stood,  in  respect  of  this 
ordinance,  between  God  and  the  individual.  It  enforced 
universal  cessation  of  labor,  as  God's  agent.  And  then 
as  the  commonwealth,  the  agent  of  each  citizen,  it  pre- 
sented their  separate   and   yet  united  homage  to  God. 

1  "  Two  lambs,"  Num.  xxviii.  9,  10.  The  seventh  month  was  cor- 
respondhigly  distinguished.  The  first  day  of  each  month  had  a 
special  monthly  offering  of  two  bullocks,  one  ram,  seven  lambs,  with 
flour,  etc.  On  the  first  day  of  the  seventh  month  this  was  nearly- 
doubled,  one  bullock,  one  ram,  and  seven  lambs  being  added.  See 
Num.  xxviii.  11-15,  and  xxix.  1-6. 

2  "  Separated."  Probably  the  blending,  in  the  first  age,  of  the 
two  institutions,  the  sacred  day  and  sacrifice,  was  the  means  em- 
ployed for  evolving  the  idea  of  sacredness  as  attached  to  each.  The 
sacrifice  was  kept  from  becoming  a  mere  feast,  much  less  an  orgy,  as 
often  among  the  heathen  (1  Cor.  x.  7).  The  time  of  worship  was 
kept  from  iudifterent  desultoriness,  likely  to  issue  in  godless  desue- 
tude. 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  Ill 

He  -wlio  broke  the  Sabbatli  not  only  disobeyed  God,  but 
also   defied   bis   nation   and    outlawed   himself 

Ex.  31 :  14. 

from  citizenship.     The  renegade  was  executed, 
not  by  the  hands  of  priests  or  Levites,  nor  on  their  sen- 
tence, tut   by  the  whole  congregation  of   the  Num.15: 
laity.     Therefore  the  Sabbath  became  a  visible  ^'^'^^ 
token  of  national  coherence.     From  that  day  onward  it 
distinguished  the  Israelite  from  all  other  men,  and  united 
him  to  all  of  his  own  community.     No  other  nation  kept 
it.     No  Jew  could  keep  it  secretly.     None  could  fail  by 
it  to  make  known  his  race  and  his  faith,  and  to  discover 
liis  loyal  fellows. 

No  means  could  be  more  efficient  to  produce  a  national 
self-consciousness.  Everything  else  pertaining  to  their 
national  administration  corresponded  to  something  which 
the  heathen  had  as  well  as  they.  Sacrifices,  priesthood, 
oracles  of  some  kind,  were  found  everywhere.  Even  cir- 
cumcision ^  may  have  been  quite  widely  known.  They 
shared  blood  and  language  with  other  tribes.  But  their 
Sabbath,  the  weekly  day  of  rest  enforced  by  public  au- 
thority, was  their  very  own.  Nothing  like  it,  nothing 
to  compare  with  it,  was  to  be  found  anywhere  else.  It 
embodied  their  national  separateness  and  their  national 
unity.  Moreover,  it  supplied  the  lack  of  that  personal 
chieftainship  about  which  nations  usually  crystallized. 
Returning  so  frequently,  with  its  rigid  absoluteness  and 
its  grave  sanctions,  it  brought  the  executive  authority  of 
their  Divine  King  to  their  perceptions  more  impressively 
and  more  continuously  than  the  rule  of  an  ordinary  king 
could  be  brought  home  to  his  subjects.  The  circum- 
stance that  the  Divine  King  was  unseen  was  of  very 
slight  importance.     In  ancient  as  in  modern  times,  kings 

^  Circumcision  was  a  personal  rather  than  a  national  rite.  It  was 
made  the  sign  and  seal  of  the  covenant  before  the  nation  was  organ- 
ized. 


112        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

have  been  known  to  the  most  of  their  subjects  by  their 
trappings  ratlier  than  by  their  persons.  If  a  messenger 
from  the  monarch,  or  an  officer  of  the  hiw  armed  with  a 
writ  of  the  chief  magistrate,  should  hiy  his  hand  upon  a 
citizen  every  weelv  of  his  hfe,  what  a  vivid  sense  that 
citizen  might  gain  of  the  authority  of  his  monarch  or 
magistrate.  How  vivid  then  the  impression  of  a  Su- 
preme Ruler,  when,  every  week,  the  activity  of  a  whole 
nation  was  arrested  by  his  command  ! 

The  designation  of  the  Sabbath  as  the  sign  of  national 
loyalty  to  God  was  made  during  the  stay  of  Moses  on 
Ex.  31:  12-  Sinai,  immediately  after  the  uttering  of  the  Dec- 
^''  alogue.     "  Verily  my  Sabbaths  ye  shall  keep: 

for  it  is  a  sign  between  me  and  you,  throughout  your 
generations  :  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  that 
doth  sanctify  you."  ..."  Wherefore  the  children  of 
Israel  shall  keep  the  Sabbath,  to  observe  the  Sabbath 
throughout  their  generations  for  a  perpetual  covenant. 
It  is  a  sign  between  me  and  the  children  of  Israel  for- 
ever."    To  this  passage  there  is  a  reference 

Ezek.  20 :  12.  ,  ^      .  .    .  ,  f  °  ,  ^  , 

by  Jiizekiel.  "  Moreover,  also,  1  gave  them 
my  Sabbaths  to  be  a  sign  between  me  and  them,  that 
they  might  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  that  sanctify 
them."  Thus  the  Sabbath  expressed  clearly  the  two 
ideas  of  God's  personal  government  and  of  national  loy- 
alty. But  the  study  of  the  day's  features  must  certainly 
demonstrate  that  they  were  adapted  to  make  these  two 
ideas,  not  unconscious  or  latent  beliefs  merely,  but  most 
familiar  and  energizing  thoughts. 

The  circumstance  dwelt  upon  in  the  phraseology  of  the 
legislation  is  rest  from  ordinary  toil.  "What  employ- 
ments were  contemplated  appears  only  incidentally. 
They  form  no  part  of  the  commandment.  It  is  not  un- 
usual to  find  in  the  Scrijjture  history,  that  first  the  bare 
negative  side  of  some  truth  is  given,  and  afterward  its 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  113 

complement,  the  positive  side,  is  set  forth  with  full  illus- 
trations. Thus  almost  the  whole  Decalogue  consists  of 
mere  restrictions.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  other 
New  Testament  teachings  give  positive  applications.  So 
the  promise  to  Eve  was  a  blank  prophecy  of  braising. 
The  promise  to  Abraham  revealed  its  logical  complement, 
—  the  coming  blessing.  So  the  Fourth  Commandment 
enacts  only  rest.  The  New  Testament  enjoins,  not  the 
rest,  but  its  employments,  —  the  assembly,  the  com- 
munion with  our  risen  Lord,  the  Scripture  exposition,  the 
exhortation,  the  hymns,  the  alms,  the  breaking  of  bread. 
Down  to  the  captivity  Israel  continued  to  be  agricul- 
tural. But  the  land  was  full  not  of  farm-houses  but  of 
villages  and  hamlets.  There  is  no  indication  of  scattered 
residences  each  in  the  midst  of  the  owners'  fields.  For 
certain  purposes,  especially  for  preserving  outlying  fields 
from  ravage,  a  tower  or  shelter  of  some  kind  was  often 
built,  so  that  some  one  might  keep  guard  when  the  crop 
was  exposed  to  danger.  But  the  farmer's  home  was 
then,  as  it  has  always  been,  and,  throughout  the  same 
region,  is  now,  in  the  village.  The  typical  Mosaic  Sab- 
bath was  therefore  the  Sabbath  of  a  farming  village. 
The  work  suspended  was  chiefly  farm  work,  ploughing, 
sowing,  harvesting,  wine-making,  and  the  like.  The  care 
of  animals  could  not  be  omitted,  however,  and  there  is 
no  injunction  bearing  on  purely  pastoral  employments. 
Those  whose  place  it  was  to  watch  over  the  herds  would 
be  obliged  to  leave  their  homes  as  usual  with  their 
charges.  But  of  course  only  the  smallest  number  requi- 
site would  be  dispatched  on  this  duty.  For  all  the  rest, 
the  Sabbath  was  preeminently  the  social  day.  Daring 
other  days  the  cultivators  were  scattered  over  their  fields. 
Sometimes  the  women  of  the  household  worked  with 
them.  If  not,  they  were  busy  enough  with  household 
work  and  the  endless  spinning  and  weaving,  each  in  her 


114      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

own  cottnge.     The  Sabbath  brought  leisure  to  them  all. 
No  fires  were  allowed  for  cooking.     Hence  sira- 

Ex.  35 :  3.  ,  i  <•    j-      •  . 

pie  meals  of  fruit  and  bread  required  very  lit- 
tle of  the  housewife's  time.  Thus  every  facility  was 
afforded  for  social  intercourse  both  of  families  and  of 
neighbors.  And  because  they  were  a  village  of  farmers, 
this  would  be  at  once  peculiarly  precious  and  jDeculiarly 
easy.  If  the  population  had  consisted  chiefly  of  artisans, 
whose  occupations  threw  them  largely  together  every 
day,  and  seldom  carried  them  away  from  the  village 
centre,  the  social  opportunities  of  the  Sabbath  would  not 
have  been  so  valuable.  These  opportunities  could  not, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  been  freely  enjoyed,  if  the  peo- 
ple had  been  scattered  in  isolated  farmsteads.  In  that 
case,  moreover,  it  would  not  have  been  so  easy  for  the 
civil  authorities  to  enforce  the  Sabbath  law.  But  in  the 
village,  Sabbath  eve  brought  all  the  farmers'  households 
together,  and  Sabbath  dawn  found  them  all  together, 
prepared  to  avail  themselves  of  social  privileges  of  which 
the  working  days  had  been  destitute. 

An  observing  stranger  visiting  in  Israel's  land,  and 
finding  himself,  on  Sabbath  morning,  in  one  of  these  vil- 
lages, would  never  have  thought  of  the  closing  of  shops 
or  mills,  or  the  silence  of  industry's  usual  hum.  The 
Phoenician  peddler  might  be  missed  from  his  seat  under 
the  village  oak ;  the  blacksmith's  forge  might  be  quiet 
beside  his  door.  The  peddler,  perhaps,  came  to  stay  but 
a  day  or  two,  and  the  blacksmith  swung  his  hammer  only 
in  the  intervals  of  his  work  in  his  own  corn-fields.  Such 
incidents,  insignificant  in  themselves,  would  not  be  in 
any  way  characteristic  of  the  Sabbath.  What  the  visitor 
would  notice  would  be  the  unusual  number  of  people  in 
the  street  and  about  the  house  doors ;  the  leisurely  con- 
verse of  parents  with  children,  and  of  neighbors  with 
neighbors,  in  groups  ever  dissolving  and  reforming  ;  the 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  115 

cheerful  vivacity  of  youths  and  servants ;  the  complete 

solitude  of  the  surrounding  fields  compared  with 

the  throngs  in  the  village.  .    e    .   .    . 

If  this  day  were  given  up  to  idleness,  it  would  be  mor- 
ally certain  that  (men  being  what  they  are  the  world 
over)  it  would  be  degraded  to  folly,  revelry,  and  license, 
making  it  a  nuisance  and  a  curse  rather  than  a  joy  and  a 
blessing.  Sometimes  it  was  so  degraded.^  But 
when  the  right  use  was  made  of  it,  every  hour 
was  elevating  and  profitable.  In  regard  to  the  use  of  the 
day,  a  very  important  principle  may  be  discerned,  which 
accounts  for  the  form  of  the  statute.  Its  restriction  was 
maintained  by  the  sword  of  the  magistrate.  The  state 
provided  for  every  one  freedom  ^  in  the  proper  use  of  the 
day,  and  (an  equally  important  matter)  it  compelled 
every  one  to  abstain  from  anything  that  could  possibly 
hinder  the  proper  use  of  the  day  by  another,  whether  a 
dependant  or  not.  But  it  did  not  compel  the  proper  use. 
That  was  left  to  conscience  and  to  the  general  influence 
of  a  public  sentiment  of  loyalty.  No  precise  and  explicit 
rules  are  given,  and  of  course  no  penalty  for  disobedi- 
ence. Nevertheless,  the  will  of  God  was  plainly  mani- 
fest through  certain  arrangements,  which,  though  not  all 
verbally  associated  with  the  Sabbath,  did,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  find  on  it  their  special  opportunity,  and  give 
to  it  all  of  its  positive  features. 

One  of  these  arrangements  was  the  convocation.     The 

^  The  bearing  of  the  first  chapter  of  Isaiah  is  against  outrageous 
licentiousness  coexistent  with  a  nominal  observance  of  the  Sabbaths 
and  other  festivals.  Compare  Ezek.  xxii.  and  xxiii.,  where  the 
same  charge  is  made,  the  Sabbath  being  specifically  referred  to  in 
xxii.  8,  16,  24,  26  ;  xxiii.  38.  Idolatrous  festivals  were  always  apt 
to  take  this  character.     Compare  1  Cor.  x.  7. 

^  Cases  of  necessity,  as  the  feeding  of  the  flocks,  were  of  course 
excepted,  and  so  were  deeds  of  mercy.     See  Matt.  xii.  11  ;  Luke 


116      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

law  for  holding  it  on  the  Sabbath  is  recorded  in  the 
Lev. 23:  twentj-tliivd  chapter  of  Leviticus.  "And  the 
^"^"  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying :  '  Speak  unto 

the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them,  concerning  the 
feasts  of  the  Lord  which  ye  shall  proclaim  to  be  holy 
convocations,  even  these  are  my  feasts.  Six  daj^s  shall 
work  be  done,  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  rest, 
an  holy  convocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  work  therein  ;  it  is 
the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  in  all  your  dwellings.'  "  In 
the  remainder  of  the  chapter  other  seasons  of  convocation 
were  appointed,  being  seven  in  all.  At  three  ^  of  these 
all  the  men  of  the  nation  would  be  expected  to  attend, 
but  they  were  not  absolutely  required  to  do  so.  At  a 
fourth,  that  of  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  a  large 
part,  certainly,  of  those  who  assembled  to  eat  the  Pass- 
over in  the  previous  afternoon  ought  to  be  found.  Some 
might  start  early  in  the  morning  for  their  homes,  but 
many  would  remain  through  all  the  ceremonies  of  the 
week,  and  attend  the  convocation  on  the  closing  day. 
The  two  other  annual  convocations  occurred  on  the  first 
and  tenth  days  of  the  seventh  month,  the  festival  of 
Lev.  23:  truuipets  and  the  Day  of  Atonement.  On  both 
^*'  ^''  these  days  the  people  were  at  their  homes.    All 

the  days  for  which  convocations  were  appointed  were 
described  as  Sabbaths.     But  they  were  not  all  alike.    On 

1  Three  times  in  the  year  every  male  must  appear  before  tlie  tab- 
ernacle, or  the  place  which  God  would  choose  (Deut.  xvi.  IG),  each 
one  bringing  a  gift  {Ex.  xxiii.  15;  xxxiv.  20).  Pentecost  lasted 
one  day.  So  also  the  Passover.  It  seems  that  it  was  permitted  to 
spend  the  days  of  unleavened  bread  at  home,  if  they  chose  (Ex.  xii. 
20).  But  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  lasted  eight  days  (Lev.  xxiii. 
34-3G).  On  Pentecost,  therefore,  and  the  first  and  eighth  days  of 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  every  male  would  be  at  the  place  where  the 
tabernacle  stood,  and  would  naturally  attend  the  convocation.  On 
the  first  and  last  days  of  unleavened  bread  many  would  attend,  but  a 
large  2>art  would  be  at  home. 


THE   MOSAIC   SABBATH.  117 

the  Day  of  Atonement  no  work  whatever  was  albnved  ; 
apparently  not  even  a  fire  could  be  kindled.    It  was  to  be 
kept  as  strictly  as  the  seventh  day  of  the  week.   1,6^.33: 
The   law  for  the   otlier  six  days  was  different.  ^'"^^" 
Only  "  servile  work,"  ^  that  is  farm  work,  was  forbidden. 
At  Pentecost  there  was  a  special  injunction  for  the  hospi- 
table entertainment  of  all  the  dependent  and  unprovided 
classes,  involving  the   not   little  labor  of  getting  ready  a 
feast  as  bountiful   as   the   family  could  afford.   Deut.  16: 
Thus  it  would  seem  that  the  application  of  the  ^^'  ^^" 
name  Sabbath  to  these  seven  days  was  not  suggested  by 
the   absolute    suspension   of  all  work,  for  that  was  true 
only  of  one.     The  name^  is  evidentl}^  suggested  by  these 
two   facts :  the   stoppage  of  the  bread-winners'  ordinary 
business,  and  the  general  assembly.     Evidently  these  two 
facts  are  related.     They  are   the  complements   of  each 
other.     Business  was  stopped  that  the  assembly  might 
be  attended.     The  assembly,  on  the  other  hand,  became 
possible  because  men  were  at  leisure  to  attend  it. 

In  the  wilderness  there  seems  to  have  been  one  place 
of  gathering  for  the  whole  body  of  adult  Israelites,  both 
men  and  women.  It  was  appointed  that  God  should 
meet  them  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle.  It  is  ex.  29:  42, 
mentioned  that  at  various  times  ^  they  did  as- 
semble there.    The  hour  *  for  meeting  seems  to  have  been 

^  Note  the  permission  to  prepare  food  on  tlie  first  and  seventli 
days  of  unleavened  bread  (Ex.  xii.:  16)  This  was  enlarged  to 
feasting  at  Pentecost  and  Tabernacles. 

2  "Convocation,"  "  do  no  work,"  associated  in  every  case.  See 
Ex.  xii.  16;  Lev.  xxiii.  3,  7,  8,  21,  24,  25,  27,  35,  36;  Num.  xxviii. 
18,  25,  26;  xxix.  1,  7,  12,  35. 

8  "Various  times."  Lev.  viii.  3,  4,  Aaron's  consecration.  Num. 
X.  3,  at  the  call  of  the  trumpets.  Num.  xxi.  19,  with  Korah.  Num. 
XXV.  6,  repenting  for  the  Baal  Peor  sin.  Ex.  xxxviii.  the  women 
(margin,  "  assembling  by  troops  "). 

*  "The  hour."  Ex.  xxix.  42,  43,  couples  the  assembly  with  the 
sacrifice.     See  1  Kings  xviii.  29,  36;  Ps.  cxli.  2. 


118      EIGHT  STUDIES    OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

that  of  the  morning  or  evening  sacrifice.  So  hirge  a  num- 
ber as  might  assemble  there  could  not  organize  for  common 
participation  in  the  exercises  according  to  modern  fashions. 
But  they  could  all  see  the  symbolic  cloak  above  and  the 
smoke  of  the  altar  below.  Doubtless  each  tribe  and 
subdivision  of  a  tribe  would  gather  around  its  chief  or 
elder,  and  so  a  fair  organization  would  be  effected.  But 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  voluble  Semites  as  all  silent 
throughout  the  time  of  meeting.  Much  of  the  ceremo- 
nial was  addressed  to  their  eyes.  But  Moses  and  Aaron 
also  spoke  to  them.  A  sentence  or  two^  was  probably  ut- 
tered, and  immediatel}'^  i-epeated  verbatim  by  those  near- 
est the  speaker,  then  taken  up  by  others,  and  so  passed 
on  to  the  most  distant  ears.  After  a  pause  for  the  first 
wave  of  repetition  to  subside,  another  sentence  or  two  would 
be  spoken,  and  in  turn  repeated  during  the  succeeding 
pause.  Thus  every  word  of  the  speaker  might  be  carried 
to  every  person  in  an  assembly  of  any  size,  even  though 
numbered  by  hundreds  of  thousands.  But  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  suppose  that  nothing  was  done  except  listening 
to  Moses  or  Aaron's  words  and  repeating  them.  There 
were  the  old  narratives  preserved  already  by  incessant 
recitation  through  many  centuries.  Perhaps  the  great 
leader  had  already  edited  (as  we  may  say)  the  inspired 
selection  which  constitutes  now  the  first  book  ascribed  to 
him.  If  that  were  so,  yet  very  few  copies  could  have  been 
made.  The  new  selection,  like  the  original  mass,  must 
have  been  dependent,  not  on  the  eyes,  but  on  the  mouths 
and  ears  of  the  people,  for  its  survival.  There  also  were 
all  the  laws  and  statutes  ordained  through  Moses  himself. 

■i 
*  The  writer  heard  this  process  described  as  one  familiar  to  Orien- 
tals at  a  meeting  in  the  chapel  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  New  York,  by 
Dr.  William  Thomson,  a  missionary's  son,  born  in  Syria,  who  was 
giving  a  series  of  lectures  there,  about  the  year  1877.  This  refer- 
ence is  from  memory  only.     See  Ex.  xxiv.  1-8. 


THE   MOSAIC   SABBATH.  119 

It  was  commanded  that  the  people  should  be  taught  these 
thoroughly.  May  we  not,  then,  believe  that  in  every 
tribelet  or  hundred  some  one  was  emploj'^ed,  during  the 
hour  of  convocation,  in  reciting  before  each  small  section 
of  the  great  gathering  these  things  which  God  designed 
to  have  fixed  in  the  people's  memories,  accurately  ?  ^ 

But  the  full  working  of  the  law  could  not  be  had  in 
the  wilderness.  It  contemplated  the  settled  life  of  the 
villages  in  the  promised  land.  The  farmer  folk  of  these 
villages  would,  however,  be  largely  guided,  as  to  the  ex- 
ercises of  the  Sabbath  convocation,  by  the  traditionary 
customs  which  descended  all  the  way  from  that  wilder- 
ness. Though  the  village  had  no  altar,  yet  the  gather- 
ing would  naturally  form  at  that  hour  when  the  morning 
lamb  was  offered  "before  the  Lord."  The  same  recita- 
tions would  also  be  given.  But  the  meeting  might  seem 
narrow  in  the  absence  of  the  great  national  brotherhood, 
and  tame  in  the  void  of  the  national  ritual.  Therefore, 
an  institution  was  inaugurated  in  the  desert,  not  enter- 
ing, however,  upon  full  activity  till  afterward,  which  rep- 
resented well  to  these  villages  both  the  grand  brotherhood 
and  the  grand  ritual  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  This 
was  the  institution  of  the  Levites.  They  had  no  inher- 
itance or  place  among  the  tribes,  but  they  stood  in  place 
of  the  first-born  of  every  tribe.  They  were  not  priests, 
but  in  everything  except  the  mediatorial  office  the}^  stood 
on  God's  behalf  before  the  people.^ 

Unquestionably  there  is  a  certain  analogy  between  the 
Levite  as  he  may  be  seen  in  the  Pentateuch  and  a  mod- 
ern Christian  minister.     But  the  differences  are  also  con- 

^  "  Accurately."  See  Deut.  iv.  2.  Compare  Rev.  xxii.  18,  19, 
and  note  on  page  123.  This  does  not  imply  that  Ezra  or  others> 
at  various  times,  under  divine  authority,  may  not  have  reedited 
Moses'  work,  and  have  added  some  verses  here  and  there. 

'  See  Deut.  xxvii.  14. 


120      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

siderahle,  notably  as  to  the  development  of  tlie  function 
of  preaching  and  of  active  propagandist  service.^  The 
resemblances,  and  also  the  relation  of  the  Levites  to  the 
exercises  of  the  Sabbath  and  to  the  convocation,  may  best 
be  shown  by  a  little  review  of  certain  characteristics  of 
their  order. 

First.  They  formed  a  class  who  might  properly  be 
termed  learned  in  theology.  It  was  their  business  to  un- 
derstand all  that  was  revealed  concerning  man  and  God, 
whether  as  a  system  of  true  philosophy,  a  scheme  of  mor- 
als, a  religious  history,  a  bod}^  of  law,  or  the  details  of 
ritual.  They  were,  therefore,  to  be  the  expounders  of 
these  matters,  and  the  instructors  of  the  people.^  In  later 
times  they  had  no  monopoly  of  the  prophetic  office, 
though  from  Samuel  down  many  of  them  held  it.  But 
the  prophets  came  in  great  measure  to  make  up  for  the 
subversion  of  the  law.  If  the  law  had  been  faithfully 
observed,  Levite  and  prophet  might  possibly  have  been 
synonymous. 

Niim  16:9  Sccond.  They  were  not  priests.  Their  ex- 
iO;i8:i-<.  elusion  from  the  mediatorial  office  was  very 
Num.  3:12  emphatic.  They  were,  however,  representa- 
39-ui.  tives   of  the  people,   standing  for  the  heads  or 

heirs  of  every  famil}^     Thus  the}'^  were  allied  to  the  older 

^  The  "  ixaOrjTevtTarf  k.t.a."  of  Miitt.  xxviii.  19  would  hardly  apply  to 
tliem.  Israel  was  regarded  as  already  professing  faith.  The  Levite 
was  not  expected  to  win  over  idolaters  as  any  jiart  of  his  oflicial 
duty. 

2  Both  priests  and  Levites  were  to  be  the  instructors  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  practically,  of  course,  the  duty  must,  for  the  most  part,  fall 
upon  the  Levites  as  the  more  numerous.  It  would  naturally  fall  into 
their  hands  also  on  account  of  their  familiarity  with  all  the  minutiae 
of  the  ritual,  and  on  account  of  their  dispersion  among  all  the  people. 
In  Deut.  xxvii.  9  the  priests  and  also  the  Levites  are  mentioned  to- 
gether with  Moses  as  expounders  and  enforcers  of  the  law.  But  the 
Levites  ajipear  as  the  active  agents  in  verse  14.  In  other  passages 
their  activity  is  implied.     See,  also,  the  blessing  Deut.  xxxiii.  10. 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  121 

priesthood,  sncli  as  Melchizedek's,  and  such  as  Christians 
share,  not  with  their  suffering  Saviour,  but  with  their 
risen  Lord. 

Third.  They  were  particularly  charged  with  caring 
for  the  support  and  maintenance  both  of  the  ritual  ^  and 
of  the  legal  administration.  Under  the  monarchy,  at 
least  in  pious  reigns,  they  seem  to  have  furnished  the 
officers  of  the  central  authority  in  all  non-military  affairs. 
The  Mosaic  constitution,  however,  did  not  apparently 
contemplate  their  being  invested  with  executive  author- 
ity. It  was  rather  implied  that  they  would  act  as  coun- 
selors, amici  cu7'ice,  so  to  say,  of  the  elders,^  who  would 
administer  each  village  almost  independently. 

Fourth.  The  income  of  both  priests  and  Levites  w^as 
to  be  drawn  chiefly  from  agricultural  tithes.  These  the 
Levites  were  to  collect  or  receive.  But  there  was  no  or- 
dinance authorizing  distraint.  Reliance  was  placed  on 
personal  influence,  and  on  faithfulness  to  the  duty  of  keep- 
ing the  people  in  mind  of  their  loyal  obligation  to  God 
their  Sovereign,  and  of  the  particulars  of  his  requirements. 

Fifth.  The  Levites  were  warmly  recommended  to  the 
cordial,  generous,  and  hospitable  regard  of  their  lay  breth. 
ren.    They  ministered  to  them  as  well  as  to  God.^  ,„  ^ 

•^  .  Deut.  10 :  8. 

Hence  the  people  were  reminded  that  not  only 

1  The  law  of  the  tithes  (Num.  xviii.  24)  implied  that  the  Levites 
should  collect  them.  Thus  they  might  easily  become  an  official  class. 
The  business  of  collecting  tithes  would  furnish  a  sufficient  reason  for 
their  general  distribution  over  the  land,  which  the  law  evidently 
contemplates.  Deut.  xii.  12,  18.  The  Levite,  who  at  other  times 
was  "  within  their  gates,"  must  be  treated,  when  at  the  feasts,  as 
part  of  their  company. 

2  In  the  case  of  homicide  by  unknown  hands,  the  elders  were  held 
respont.ible,  and  were  required  to  purge  themselves  before  the 
priests.     Deut.  xxi.  1-5. 

8  The  Levites  were  probably  not  authorized  to  give  the  benedic- 
tion of  Num.  vi.  24-26. 


122       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

had  these  Levites  no  hmded  possession,  but  there  was  a 
claim,  both  as  God's  appointees  and  as  the  people's  rep- 
resentatives, upon  popular  support. 

The  thirty-five  villages  allotted  the  Levites  sufficed, 
of  course,  for  only  a  part  of  the  tribe,  perhaps  for  those 
past  service.  Members  of  all  the  tribal  families  would 
be  there,  and  the  adjacent  fields  would  be  tilled  by  the 
youths  and  old  men,  assisted  by  the  women.  The  able- 
bodied  men,  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  fift}'^,  would 
alternate  between  duty  at  the  tabernacle  (or  temple) 
and  tours  through  the  country,  or  perhaps  a  short  resi- 
dence at  various  points.  Their  families  might  remain  in 
their  family  village,  or  follow  their  wanderings,  or  live  in 
some  district  where  the  Levite  might  have  a  local  charge 
when  not  wanted  at  the  sanctuary.  In  these  tours  or 
sojourns  the  Levite  would  look  after  the  tithes,  correct 
any  deviation  from  the  law,  and  give  information  on  any 
point  where  light  was  wanted.  He  would  appear  as  a 
plain  Israelite,  not  a  priest  but  a  brother,  in  virtue  of 
his  tribal  substitution  for  the  first-born  ;  and  yet,  by  the 
dignity  of  his  divine  calling  and  appointment,  his  associa- 
tion with  the  sacred  order  of  priests,  his  familiarity  with 
all  the  typical  solemnities  of  the  sanctuary,  his  learning 
in  all  that  was  given  to  men  by  the  word  and  authority 
of  God,  he  would  inspire  that  respect  and  confidence 
which  the  very  word  of  God  impressively  and  repeatedly 
bespoke  for  him. 

In  the  farming  village  such  a  Levite  would  usually  be 
found  as  a  guest,  abiding  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time. 
At  the  hour  of  morning  sacrifice  the  villagers  would  nat- 
urally  gather  about  him,  as  the  convocation  gathered  for- 
merly before  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  in  front  of  the 
great  altar.  Under  his  leadership  some  choral  might  be 
intoned  as  he  liad  been  taught  to  sing  it  with  the  trained 
choir  of  his  tribe  at  the  sanctuary.     Then  some  prayers 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  123 

might  be  offered,  having  plain  reference  to  the  sacrifice 
which  they  all  knew  to  be  smoking  on  the  distant  altar 
they  could  not  see.  To  these  prayers  all  the  people 
would  say,  Amen.^  Then  might  occur,  what  is  still  so 
congenial  to  an  Oriental  gathering,  a  recitation,  some 
portions  of  the  law,  —  some  of  the  ancient  narratives 
embodied  in  the  sacred  books ;  possibly  traditions  and 
histories  ^  other  than  those  sealed  by  divine  authority 
might  furnish  the  matter  of  the  rehearsal.  Perhaps  some 
villager,  perhaps  a  youth,  perhaps  more  than  one,  might 
be  in  turn  the  spokesman,  the  Levite  attesting  his  accu- 
racy ^  or  correcting  any  error.  After  the  recitation  there 
might  be  some  simple  comment  or  instruction  by  the 
Levite,  assisted  it  may  be  by  the  village  elders.  This 
would  take  the  form  of  question  and  answer,  or  of  pithy 
sentences  repeated  by  the  audience.  If  a  priest  were 
present,  the  concourse  might  be  dismissed  with  the  stately 
blessing  ending  the  sixth  chapter  of  Numbers.  Though 
probabl}^  not  authorized  to  use  this  form,  the 
Levite  also  was  to  bless  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

There  is  not  a  word  explicitly  connecting  the  instruc- 
tion of  children  with  the  exercises  of  the  Sabbath.  Yet 
there  is  at  least  some  reason  for  believing  that  this  was 
one  of  the  arrangements  which  were  designed  andffcdapted 

^  "Amen."     See  Dent,  xxvii.  15-26,  and  Ps.  cvi.  48. 

^  Tlie  Book  of  Jasher,  Iddo,  etc.  ? 

*  "  Accuracy."  In  the  beginning  of  the  Sabbath  year,  at  the  feast 
of  Tabernacles,  the  whole  law  was  to  be  read  publicly  from  the  au- 
thentic manuscript  preserved  at  the  sanctuary.  This  would  insure 
the  correction  of  any  error  that  might  have  crept  in.  Deut.  xxxi. 
10,  13.  The  frequent  repetition  enjoined  Deut.  vi.  6-9,  might  pro- 
duce considerable  variations.  At  the  Sabbath  services  these  would 
be  discovered,  and  the  septennial  reading  would  settle  any  doubt. 
For  a  people  without  printing,  no  better  way  to  keep  the  whole  pop- 
ulation acquahited  with  the  very  Word  of  God  in  purity  could  be 
devised. 


124      EIGHT  STUDIES    OE   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

to  give  character  to  the  (lay.  The  association  of  parents 
and  children,  and  the  tenderness  of  Jewish  fathers,  in  con- 
trast with  the  prevalent  manners  of  all  heathendom,  have 
often  been  commented  on.  All  this  grew  out  of  their 
religious  training  and  hojjes.^  In  the  mass,  it  varied  as 
their  piety.  Allusions  are  found  to  the  parents'  habit  of 
answering  their  children's  questions  about  i-eligious  acts 
and  memorials  ;  and  they  were  charged  to  give  full  and 
clear  explanations.  Such  questions  ^  would  inevitably  be 
suggested  by  the  Sabbath  and  its  regular  incidents.  The 
explanation  required  would  lead  to  a  complete  history  of 
God's  dealings  with  their  ancestors  in  pursuance  of  his 
promise.  The  rehearsals  at  the  convocation  would  fur- 
ther stimulate  such  inquiries.  In  accordance  with  east- 
ern fashions  the  youth  would  be  expected  to  memorize, 
verbatim,  these  very  narratives  and  laws  so  as  to  be  able, 
each  in  due  course,  to  take  part  in  the  recitations.  A 
strict  injunction  was  laid  on  parents  to  teach  their  chil- 
dren these  things.^  The  leisure  of  the  Sabbath  brought 
with  it  an  opportunity,  and  such  an  opportunity  is  al- 
ways one  side  of  a  duty. 

The  convocation  is  always  styled  "  holy."  The  gather- 
ing was  clothed  with  reverence  and  awe.  Its  business,  its. 
spirit,  its  whole  purpose,  was  humble  acknowledgment  of 
the  nation's  sovereign  God.  It  was  the  prominent  fea- 
ture of  the  village  Sabbath.  The  central  figure  was,  of 
course,  the  Levite.    But  none  would  be  busier,  none  would 

^  What  an  apostasy,  when  an  Israelite  could  sacrifice  his  child  to 
Moloch ! 

2  "  Questions."  See  Ex.  xii,  26,  27  ;  Deut.  vi.  20-25  ;  xxxii.  7  ; 
Josh.  iv.  6,  7.  Too  much  must  not  be  built  on  these  passages;  but 
they  must  not  be  robbed,  on  the  other  hand,  of  their  testimony  to 
common  habits.     See,  also,  Ps.  xliv.  1 ;  Ixxviii.  3, 

8  "  Teach  them  diligently."  Deut.  vi.  7.  Note  the  Sabbatic  ring 
of  the  echoing  passages.  Ps.  xxxiv.  11  ;  Prov.  i.  8;  iv.  1;  v.  1,  7;  viii. 
32,  etc.     Note,  also,  the  reference  to  delinquence  in  Malachi  iv.  6. 


THE  MOSAIC  SABBATH.  1-0 

more  heartily  enjoy  its  sunny  hours,  than  the  children  and 
youth,  to  whom  the  mysteries  of  their  religion  were  then 
unfolded,  and  those  who  led  their  studies.  The  back- 
ground of  the  picture  was  universal  genial  sociality.  The 
gladsomeness  of  all  was  heightened  by  the  communal  as- 
semblage ;  by  the  participation  of  servants,  children,  and 
mothers ;  by  the  presence  of  one  familiar  with  the  capitol, 
connected  with  the  national  government,  and  yet  not  far 
above  their  own  rank.  But  the  social  glow,  favored  by 
the  day's  leisure,  was  yet  restrained  from  any  approach 
to  license  by  the  solemnity  of  the  convocation,  by  the 
official  dignity  and  influence  of  the  visiting  Levite,  and 
by  the  occupation  of  explaining  or  memorizing  what  we 
may  call  the  Scriptures.  Thus,  while  this  was  a  day  of 
leisure  and  of  rest,  it  may  well  have  been  full  of  employ- 
ment. Every  hour  had  some  business  with  God,  or  for 
God.  Thus  every  mind  became  accustomed  to  feel  his 
personal  superintendence  and  government.  The  whole 
Sabbath  spoke  of  Him,  of  his  authority,  of  his  favor, 
especially  of  his  promises  ;  and  so  of  his  personal  interest 
in  each  and  all  of  them.  His  majesty  arrested  plough 
and  sickle  and  press.  His  minister  presided  at  the  reci- 
tation of  his  acts  and  words.  His  praise  was  sung  by  the 
villnge  choir,  his  benevolence  was  reflected  in  social  fel- 
lowship and  household  relaxation.  His  promises  contin- 
ually stimulated  to  some  contemplation  of  their  national 
destiny,  and  would,  in  time,  suggest  some  dim  compari- 
son between  the  future  day  of  blessing  to  all  nations  and 
the  present  day  of  blessing  to  all  the  little  vilhige  world. 
And  so  his  covenant,  like  a  banner,  waved  over  the  Sab- 
bath land. 


STUDY  VI. 

THE   SABBATIC   SYSTEM  OF   ISEAEL. 

"  Wherefore  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ."  — 
Gal.  iii.  24. 

The  promise  to  Abraham  and  tlie  promise  given  to 
Adam  and  Eve  ^  make  .  together  one  complete  whole. 
Nothing  more  conld  be  made  known  except  as  to  greater 
minuteness  of  details  until  the  time  of  fulfillment  arrived. 
This,  like  the  promise,  is  in  two  parts  separated  by  mil- 
lenniums of  time.  The  heel  of  the  woman's  seed  was 
bruised  on  Calvary.  The  head  of  his  enemy  is  not  yet 
crushed.^  The  day  of  blessing  to  all  nations  began  to 
dawn  when  the  "  Dayspring  from  on  high  visited  us." 
It  is  not  yet  the  perfect  day  of  the  world's  complete 
blessedness.  The  administration  of  the  promise  is  still 
continuing.  The  means  and  the  end  of  the  promise,  the 
process  of  atonement,  anff  the  development  of  lo3'al  devo- 
tion, are  included  still  in  that  administration.  In  the 
process  of  atonement  the  divine  wrath  against  sin  was 
first  manifested,  then  the  character  and  mission  of  the 
Sin-Bearer,  lastly  the  work  of  the  Sin-Remover,  the 
Sanctifying  Spirit.  By  similar  steps  the  development  of 
loyalty  began  with  the  simple  idea  of  obedience ;  then, 
by  degrees,  reached  the  consciousness  of  a  trust  to  hold  ; 

*  The  first  promise  was  in  form  addressed  to  the  serpent.  But  it 
was  uttered  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race  whose  progenitors  lis- 
tened to  it. 

2  "Not  jet."     1  Cor.  xv.  25;  Heb.  ii.  8;  Rev.  xix.  11;  xx.  15. 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         127 

and  in  this  last  age  has  been  rousing  in  Christian  minds 
the  perception  of  a  mission  to  execute.  Not  all  at  once, 
but  in  the  course  of  ages,  the  prophets,  who  represented 
the  religious  intelligence  of  Israel,  learned  the  fact,  that 
not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  another  dispensation  were 
they  ministering.  This  fact  was  a  fact  from  iPet.  i:io- 
the  first.  Gravitation  existed  as  truly  before  ^^' 
as  after  men  learned  to  think  of  it  as  such.  We,  at  least 
in  our  own  day,  know  each  of  these  things  as  a  fact ; 
and  in  the  light  of  this  knowledge  we  must  study  the 
other  facts  before  us.  The  Mosaic  system,  as  a  whole, 
and  in  all  its  great  departments,  was  prepai'ative.  It 
was  not  intended  to  endure.  It  bore  within  itself  the 
evidence  of  its  own  transitoriness.  Israel  was  allowed 
scarcely  any  initiative.  He  w^as  confined  to  routine. 
The  utmost  precision  in  following  that  routine  was  his 
merit.  That  routine  was  his  sacred  trust.  Yet  it  was 
more  than  dead  routine.  It  was  a  divine  education.  It 
provided  the  germs  of  all  those  moral  or  mental  states 
and  operations  which  are  involved  in  man's  first  becom- 
ing reconciled  to  God,i  and  then  living  as  a  lo^^al  citi- 
zen of  God's  kingdom.  It  provided,  also,  for  the  grad- 
ual, and  at  length  the  complete,  development  of  those 
germs.  It  contemplated  the  time  when  men,  having  be- 
come in  their  veiy  hearts  at  one  with  God,  and  having 
become  used  to  all  the  habits  and  ideas  ciu-rent  in  the 
commonwealth  of  the  godly,  might  be  emancipated  from 
the  trammels  of  its  statutory  drill,  and  ushered  into  the 
exercise  of  free  spontaneity  as  citizens  of  that  common- 
wealth. The  coming  One  who  should  introduce  this  new 
era  was  distinctly  set  forth,  as  the  antitype  of  the  law- 
giver who  had  established  the  routine. 

The  weekly  Sabbath  alone  was  not  sufficient  to  give 

1  Including  in  this  phrase  also  the  reconciliation  of  God  to  man, 
i.  e.  the  whole  atonement. 


128      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S   DAY. 

the  due  preparation  for  tbcit  future  citizenship.  It  did 
give  that  which  must  lie  at  the  foundation  of  any  real 
preparation  for  citizenship,  —  a  strong  sense  of  nation- 
ality. But  in  the  development  of  the  national  Sabbath 
out  of  the  simple  sacred  day  of  patriarchal  times,  there 
was  involved  one  contingency  of  evil.  With  the  perpet- 
ual recurrence  of  the  Sabbath  the  consciousness  of  na- 
tionality must  become  very  vivid.  At  length  the  idea 
of  the  nation  might  become  so  vivid  as  to  bedim  the  idea 
of  its  sovereign  God.  If  loyalty  were  all  that  the  Sab- 
bath signified,  then  loyalty  to  the  nation  might  take  the 
place  of  loyalty  to  God.  God  was  unseen  ;  so  also  the 
nation  was  an  unseen  abstraction.  But  it  was  God's  ex- 
ecutive, and  by  its  office-bearers  stood  between  the  peo- 
ple and  God.  It  might  absorb  all  their  loyalty,  if  loyalty 
was  all  they  had.  The  name  of  God  might  then  be  on 
the  people's  lips ;  but  the  desire  to  do  his  will  because  it 
was  his  would  not  be  in  their  hearts.  The  Sabbath 
would  then  become  nothing  more  than  a  national  pecul- 
iarity,—  a  Jewish  distinction.  It  would  serve  no  pur- 
pose, but  to  advertise  the  Jew  as  one  separate  from  all 
other  men.  Just  this  did  actually  come  to  pass.  But  it 
came  to  pass  only  because  the  sabbatic  legislation,  as  a 
whole,  was  not  faithfully  enforced ;  because  the  sabbatic 
system  was  not  suffered  to  work  out,  in  a  proper  wa}', 
the  proper  results  of  its  routine.  That  system  was  more 
or  less  disregarded  when  it  might  have  been  executed. 
When  the  day  of  fanatic  legalism  came,  its  execution 
was  no  longer  possible.  So  the  Sabbath  became  barren. 
It  was  leading  to  no  goal.  The  ideas  and  feelings  which 
ought  to  have  been  a  part  of  it  were  replaced  by  a  nar- 
row and  selfish  formalism,  through  the  greater  or  less 
neglect  of  those  provisions  which  would  have  given  it  a 
larger  meaning.  The  feeling  of  Jewishness  enveloped  it 
like  a  husk. 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.  129 

The  sabbatic  system  consisted  of  five  members. 
These  five  may  be  regarded  as  two  groups,  one  of  three 
and  one  of  two  members.  The  three  members  of  the 
first  group  were  the  sacred  day,  the  sacred  month,  and 
the  sacred  year,  —  each  the  last  of  a  series  of  seven  days, 
months,  and  years,  respectively.  The  two  members  of 
the  second  group  were  a  sacred  day  and  a  sacred  year, 
immediately  succeeding  seven  series  of  seven  days  and 
seven  series  of  seven  years  respectively,  and,  therefore, 
each  constituting  the  first  in  a  new  series  of  seven.  The 
first  three  closed  a  week.  The  latter  two  began  it.  The 
centre  of  this  system  was,  of  course,  the  seventh  day  of 
the  week.  It  existed  before  any  of  the  others.  It  was 
enjoined  upon  Israel  before  any  of  them.  It  stood  upon 
a  different  foundation  and  with  a  loftier  dignity;  for 
it  bad  a  place  not  only  in  primeval  tradition,  but  also 
in  tlie  solemn  magnificence  of  the  uttered  Decalogue. 
While  the  title  of  Sabbath  is  variously  applied,  no  other 
day,  no  other  sabbatic  period,  is  ever  confused  with  tJie 
Sabbath. 

The  seventh  month  of  each  year  ^  was  distinguished  by 
the  most  solemn  of  the  national  acts  of  worship,  the  Day 
of  Atonement,  and  by  the  most  joyous  of  the  national 
festivals,  the  Week  of  Tabernacles.  It  was  further  dis- 
tinguished by  twice  as  many  Sabbaths  ^  as  an  ordinary 

^  It  is  not  necessary  to  refer  the  intelligent  reader  to  all  the  spe- 
cific passages  for  the  provisions  of  the  law  concerning  the  various 
sabbatic  seasons.  A  careful  perusal  of  the  four  Mosaic  books  is 
absolutely  indispensable  and  sufficient.  The  principal  passages  are 
Ex.  xii.,  xvi.,  xxxi.,  xxxiv. ;  Lev.  xxiii.,  xxv. ;  Num.  xxviii.,  xxix. ; 
Deut.  xii.,  xv.,  xvi. 

^  Of  course  there  would  sometimes  be  five  weekly  Sabbaths,  and 
sometimes  one  or  more  of  the  additional  Sabbaths  would  coincide 
with  a  weekly  Sabbath.  The  distinction  between  Shabbath  and 
Shabbathon  is  of  no  consequence  in  this  study.  It  is  noticed  in  the 
next  Study  in  a  note  on  the  Pentecost. 
9 


130       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

month,  —  the  first,  tenth,  fifteenth,  and  twenty-second 
being  so  liept  in  addition  to  the  foiu'  seventh  days  of  the 
week  which  would  ordinaril}^  fall  within  it.  So  the  weekly 
Sabbath  was  dignified  by  the  offering  of  twice  as  many 
lambs  as  were  sacrificed  at  the  morning  and  evening  of 
other  days.  This  seventh  month  was  still  further  dis- 
tinguished by  the  dignity  of  its  opening  or  representative 
day,  which  was  a  special  Sabbath,  and  by  the  beginning 
of  the  sabbatic  and  jubilee  years  which  it  witnessed. 

The  seventh  year  was  distinguished  by  cessation  of 
agricultural  work,  and  also  by  the  release  of  debts  and 
of  Hebrew  slaves.^  At  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  which 
occurred  at  its  beginning,  the  whole  law,  including  prob- 
ably all  the  Mosaic  writings,  was  to  be  read  in  public. 
The  original  manuscript,  or  copies  made  in  the  precincts 
of  the  sanctuary,  must  have  been  used  for  this  reading. 
Perfect  accuracy  would  thus  be  insured  both  to  the 
copies  read  and  to  the  oral  tradition,  since  thousands  of 
trained  ears  would  be  quick  to  catch  the  smallest  dis- 
crepancy. 

Thus,  while  the  sabbatic  month  normally  contained 
twice  as  many  Sabbaths  as  any  other  month,  the  sab- 
batic year  was  one  whole  Sabbath.  While  the  seventh 
month  represented,  more  than  any  other,  the  unity  of 
national  action  in  the  expression  of  loyalty,  not  only  to  its 
political  Head,  but  also  (in  the  Day  of  Atonement)  to  its 
moral  Governor,  the  Judge  of  hearts  and  of  consciences, 
—  the  seventh  year  represented  this  national  action  as 
even  more  energetically  expressing  the  loyalty  of  the  peo- 
ple, in  their  conforming  to  peculiar  social  conditions  im- 
posed by  that  political  Head  and  that  moral  Director  for 
the  whole  year.  The  restrictions  which  bound  each  in- 
dividual increased.  But  the  privileges  and  advantages, 
for  which  these  universal  restrictions  furnished  an  oppor- 
1  Ex,  xxiii.  10,  11;  Lev.  xxv.  2-7  ;  Deut.  xv.  1-18;  xxxi.  10-13. 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         131 

tunity,  increased  much  more.  These  privileges  and  ad- 
vantages were  exemphfied,  in  the  highest  degree,  by  the 
two  other  members  of  the  system  :  the  I%ntecost  and  the 
Jubilee.  These  two  were  distinguished  by  their  relation 
to  the  week.  They  preserved  its  integrity  and  its  suc- 
cession, and  yet  presented  in  it  a  different  plan  and  order, 
giving  that  prominence  to  its  beginning  which  was  in 
other  cases  given  to  its  close.  Pentecost,  moreover,  was 
distinguished  as  the  only  one  of  the  great  festivals  which 
depended  at  all  on  the  count  of  weeks  for  its  date.  It 
was,  therefore,  the  only  one  connected  with  the  sabbatic 
system.  It  was  also  the  only  one  exclusively  associated 
with  the  land  of  promise,  having  in  it  no  reminiscence  of 
Egypt,  like  the  Passover ;  and  no  formal  memory  of  the 
wilderness,  like  the  Tabernacles.  The  Jubilee  was  also 
distinguished  by  its  peculiar  relation  to  the  land,  intro- 
ducing, as  it  did,  the  climax  of  the  land  law;  the  resto- 
ration of  ancestral  estates  to  the  heirs  of  those  who  first 
received  them,  at  the  hands  of  Joshua,  as  a  direct  fief  of 
the  Lord  God  their  Sovereign. 

These  five  members  of  the  sabbatic  system  were  bound 
together  by  three  circumstances  which  applied  to  them 
all.  They  were  called  Sabbaths,^  they  were  constituted 
by  the  succession  of  sevens,  and  they  were  marked  by  the 
cessation  of  agriculture.  Thus  the  system,  as  a  whole, 
served  to  create  and  develop  ideas  and  feelings,  associa- 
tions and  expectations,  which,  while  centering  in  the 
weekly  Sabbath,  spread  from  it  to  form  a  sabbatic  ideal, 
a  conception  of  a  something  which  was  not  the  actual 
Sabbath  of  ordinary  experience,  and  yet  was  seen  in  it, 
as  in  a  picture  would  be  seen  the  reduced  image  of  some- 
thing larger  and  more  distant. 

^  The  seventli  month  was  not  called  a  Sabbath  in  the  Scripture, 
and  in  strictness  it  was  not,  as  a  whole,  in  the  same  sense  as  the  sev- 
enth year,  yet  the  dignity  it  received  warrants  for  it  a  place  in  the 
system.*  In  some  Jewish  writings  it  is  called  the  sabbatic  month. 


132       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LOIiD'S   DAY. 

In  order  to  study  what  sort  of  an  ideal  tins  system  was 
intended  to  create  and  develop,  we  must  consider  its 
working  in  the  experience  of  a  village  of  farmers,  one 
of  the  typical  villages  of  Israel's  home  in  Canaan.  From 
the  specific  provisions  of  the  law  as  recorded,  we  must 
judge  what  its  effect  would  be  on  such  villagers  through 
the  repetitions  of  many  centuries.  We  need  not  over- 
look all  the  truths  taught  in  the  elaborate  system  of  sacri- 
fices, neither  can  we  study  them  now.  We  wish  to  ask 
what  would  these  village  farmers  learn,  —  unconsciously, 
involuntarily,  incidentally  learn,  —  to  think,  to  feel,  to 
say,  to  do,  to  plan  for,  to  expect  through  the  continued 
recurrence  not  only  of  weekly  Sabbaths  but  also  of 
seventh  months  and  sabbatic  years  and  Pentecosts  and 
Jubilees,  if  each  and  all  were  kept  as  God  commanded. 
Certain  answers  to  such  questions  lie  on  the  surface,  and 
may  be  perceived  as  soon  as  the  attention  is  fairly  directed 
to  them.  Such  only  can  be  considered  here.  For  it  may 
not  be  right  to  rest  an  argument  concerning  a  matter  so 
dear  as  the  Lord's  Day  to  every  believer,  on  anj^  state- 
ment which  a  believer  of  ordinary  intelligence  cannot 
verify  for  himself  from  the  Word  of  God. 

I.  Indefinite  enlargement  of  the  idea  of  the  Sabbath. 
The  first  effect  to  be  noticed  in  this  typical  village  life 
is,  indefinite  enlargement  of  the  popular  idea  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  Sabbath.  In  our  own  time  Sunday  has 
always  to  be  taken  somehow  into  account.  Whatever 
may  be  men's  views,  feelings,  prejudices,  there  it  is  right 
in  the  way.  Willingly  or  unwillingh^,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  religiously  or  irreligiously,  all  must  pay 
some  regard  to  it.  But  how  much  more  were  these 
Hebrew  farmers  to  think,  to  plan,  and  to  do  about  it  ! 
The  weekly  day  of  abstention  from  labor  was  only  a 
beginning.  Beside  that,  the  farmer  must  look  forward 
to  special  annual  suspensions  of  his  farm  work.     And, 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         133 

still  more,  lie  must  keep  in  mind  the  septennial  omission 
of  all  tillatre,  and  the  doubled  intermission  of  the  Jubilee, 
as  well  as  its  revision  of  the  holdings  of  the  land.  The 
iiitrinsic  character  of  each  one  of  these  intermissions,  and 
the  relation,  of  each  to  the  programme  of  husbandry  was 
such,  that  the  farmer  was  compelled  to  look  forward  to 
each,  to  prepare  for  each,  and  to  hold  all  before  his  mind 
as  concerns  of  indefinitely  increasing  importance  to  him- 
self and  his.  Thus  Pentecost  laid  its  hand  on  the  mid- 
summer. The  Passover  and  the  Tabernacles  called  the 
farmer  away  from  home  at  times  sufficiently  favorable  to 
such  excursions.  After  the  sowing  is  done,  and  again 
after  the  harvest  is  gathered,  farming  folk,  in  all  lands, 
have  been  wont  to  celebrate  holiday.  But  these  He- 
brews, when  they  left  their  yellowing  barley  for  the 
passover  journey,  had  to  think  of  the  second  journey 
seven  weeks  later  in  raid-harvest.  It  was  taken  out  of 
their  busiest  time  in  the  wheat -fields,  and  must  be 
planned  for.  So,  at  the  close  of  harvest,  the  farmers  were 
not  free  to  work  steadily  at  their  ingathering  up  to  the 
appointed  day  for  the  festival  of  the  booths.  Two  extra 
days,  in  the  beginning  of  this  important  month,  must  be 
given  up  to  religious  use.  And  one  extra  day  is  added 
to  the  week  of  the  feast.  All  summer  through,  the  re- 
strictions, as  well  as  the  privileges,  of  the  seventh  month 
must  likewise  be  planned  for. 

Then  the  seventh  month  must  necessarily  bi'ing  sharply 
to  mind  the  sabbatic  year,  which  always  began  in  that 
month.  The  celebration  of  the  first  day  of  this  month 
(the  feast  of  Trumpets)  may  have  been  specially  in- 
tended to  direct  the  villagers'  attention  to  the  coming 
year  of  release  and  benevolence.  This  day,  like  Pen- 
tecost,  seems  to   have  closed  ^  with   a  feast.     Probably 

^  It  is  not  impossible  that  in  some  cases  tliese  feasts  may  liave  been 
called  (popularly)  sacrifices,  though  not  ofiered  on  an  altar.     Both 


134      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

sheep  or  beeves,  provided  by  the  elders,  would  be  roasted 
or  boiled.  The  villagers,  sitting  round  the  coals,  might 
regale  themselves,  as  thoughtless  of  grease  as  of  plates 
or  forks.  Some  would  carry  steaming  joints  to  their 
cottages.  The  elders  and  dignitaries  would  be  served 
under  cover,^  and  with  a  slight  inclination  toward  dain- 
tiness. Thus  would  be  conveyed  a  hint  of  the  good  time 
coming  to  all. 

Likewise  the  feast  of  weeks,  Pentecost,  another  day 
not  only  for  worship,  but  also  for  liberal  hospitality, 
would  hardly  fail  to  suggest  the  Jubilee  which  crowned 
the  seven  weeks  of  years.  Bat  the  sabbatic  3'ear  and 
the  Jubilee  were  not  merely  suggested  by  the  seventh 
month  and  the  fiftieth  day.  They  were  forced  upon 
every  one's  attention.  The  whole  of  their  tillage  must 
be  planned  with  reference  to  the  seventh  year  when  the 
ground  would  lie  fallow.  And  every  bargain  in  the  vil- 
lage, every  sale  and  purchase,  every  loan,  every  lease, 
every  obligation  or  acquisition  of  service,  building  and 
repairing,  all  losses  and  gains  ;  indeed,  every  business 
transaction  involved  a  reference^  to  the  coming  3'ear  of 
sabbatic  release,  or  the  still  grander  year  of  Jubilee  re- 
vision. Both  these  periods,  moreover,  would  occupy  the 
imagination  rather  than  the  memory  of  most.  An  old 
man  would  not  always  have  more  than  one  Jubilee  to  re- 
ideas,  the  altar  and  the  social  partaking,  are  included  in  the  com- 
plete idea  of  a  sacrifice  ;  bnt  that  word  may  have  been  applied 
where  only  the  social  partaking  was  realized.  For  example,  in  1 
Sam.  ix.  there  is  no  hint  of  an  aJtar.  On  the  contrary,  the  cook 
is  mentioned,  v.  23.  In  all  probability  the  "sacrifice  "  was  simply  a 
village  feast,  perhaps  the  very  feast  of  Trumjiets.  See  also  Prov.  vii. 
14  ;  xvii.  1. 

1  Parlor.  1  Sam.  ix.  22.  The  tenement  was  evidently  on  the 
"high  place,"  vv.  12-14,  19,  25. 

2  "Involved  a  reference."  Just  as  from  18G3-1877  every  business 
transaction  in  America  involved  some  reference  to  the  premium  on 
gold  coin. 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         135 

member.  Those  in  middle  life  would  have  known  only 
two  or  three  sabbatic  years  daring  their  manhood.  Be- 
fore the  great  part  of  our  villagers  these  periods  would 
loom  up  as  grand  expectations,  projected  out  of  the 
shadowy  future  and  full  of  majesty,  because  they  irre- 
sistibly affected  the  welfare  of  all.  And  the  classes  who 
would  be  most  deeply  interested  in  the  advent  of  these 
periods  would  be  those  whose  imaginations  would  be  most 
excitable.  They  would  be  not  the  experienced,  the  suc- 
cessful, the  self-satisfied  and  self-sufficient ;  but  the  young, 
the  unfortunate,  the  poor,  the  bondmen,  the  humbler,  and 
also  the  more  numerous  part  of  the  village  society.  To 
all  such  how  large  in  importance  these  jaeriods  would  be. 
As  they  approach,  how  impressive  the  preparation  ! 
How  careful  the  calculation  !  How  exciting  the  expec- 
tation !  Some,  it  is  true,  might  be  as  reluctant  as  others 
were  longing.  But  none  could  be  unmoved  and  indif- 
ferent. 

And  so  there  was  borne  upon  the  mind,  ever}'  weekly 
Sabbath,  some  hint  or  foreshadowing  of  a  larger  Sab- 
bath. j\Ien  were  taught  to  look  forward  to  weeks, 
months,  and  years  by  sevens.  This  was  not  on  account 
of  any  imaginary  convenience  in  counting  by  sevens,  as 
we  count  by  tens,  for  no  nation  counted  that  way  ;  but  it 
was  because  every  seven  led  up  to  something  solemn, 
instructive,  and  beneficent ;  and  every  seven  times  seven 
to  something  yet  more  solemn,  instructive,  and  benefi- 
cent. The  future  always  held  before  their  imagination 
not  merely  a  great  event,  but  also  the  inauguration  of  a 
great  period.  Through  the  skillfully  prepared  perspective 
of  enlarffino;  intervals  and  more  and  more  absorbinsj  con- 
ditions,  the  great  coming  period  towered  in  the  distance, 
and  every  weekly  Sabbath  was  the  gateway. 

II.  Two  contrasted  administrations  of  society.  The 
larger  sabbatic  periods  gave  scope  for  the  administration 


136       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

of  certain  principles  whose  effect  could  not  have  been 
made  perceptible  on  the  scale  of  a  day.  These  prin- 
ciples, associated  with  the  sabbatic  system  and  so  with 
the  Sabbatli,  were  in  sharp  contrast  with  those  wliich 
regulate  the  ordinary  social  activity  of  mankind.  In 
regard  to  the  latter,  mankind  have  not  changed  since 
history  began.  Their  ideal  of  social  activity  may  be 
expressed  in  three  words:  get.  hold,  enjoy.  Their  motto 
is,  Mine  for  myself.  Three  tliousand  years  ago  this  was 
as  much  the  rule  in  Israel's  land  as  it  is  in  this  nine- 
teenth century  of  America  and  Europe.  There  have 
been,  in  all  ages,  exceptional  examples  of  unselfishness, 
but  the  rule  of  social  life  has  not  changed.  Only  our 
age  has  obtained  from  evangelical  Christianity  some  con- 
ception of  a  regime  of  perfect  unselfishness,  of  unerring 
justice,  cooperating  with  complete  benevolence.  We  be- 
lievers look  for  such  a  rSgime  to  come.  It  is  distinctly 
before  our  hope  and  symbolized  to  us  on  every  Lord's 
Day.  In  his  sabbatic  system  the  Hebrew  had  this  same 
conception  set  before  him  as  an  object  lesson.  The  study 
was  made  for  him  as  simple  as  any  child  could  need. 
He  was  not  expected  to  philosophize  about  the  release  of 
slaves,  the  canceling  of  debts,  the  restoration  of  houses 
and  lands,  the  common  sharing  of  corn  and  fruit.  But 
if  he  kept  the  law  he  could  not  help  becoming,  at  length, 
familiar  enough  with  the  results  of  God's  interference. 
He  would  see  not  merely  days  but  years,  and  not  merely 
single  years  but  years  in  regular  recurrence  and  redupli- 
cation, forcibly  taken  away  from  the  influence  of  those 
ordinary  motives  which  inspire  men  to  work  and  trade, 
and  which  move  the  social  machinery,  —  forcibly  put 
under  the  operation  of  rules  which,  as  laws  of  any  land, 
were  otherwise  utterly  unknown.  The  world  has  never 
seen  institutions  like  these.  No  lawgiver  ever  proposed 
the  like.     Neither  Plato  nor  More  suggest  them.     Cen- 


rilE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.  137 

turies  before  our  villagers  could  express  such  a  feeling  in 
the  vaguest  language,  they  would  feel  that  here  was  a 
picture,  a  type,  a  suggestion  of  what  the  uncliallenged 
government  of  men  by  God,  under  his  covenant  of  grace, 
would  be.  It  was  indeed  justice  with  benevolence  be- 
tween man  and  man.  No  oppression,  no  outwitting ! 
The  covetous  restrained  !  The  keen  and  ambitious 
turned  aside  !  The  drudge  awakened  to  meditation,  and 
the  stupid  aroused  to  hope  !  The  fallen  lifted  up  to  es- 
say a  new  starting  !  The  unfortunate  restored  to  earlier 
comfort !  The  whole  population  made  free  to  consume 
the  fruit  of  the  land  wherever  it  grew,  not  as  the  reward 
of  toil,  but  as  God's  free  unearned  gift !  At  last  they 
would  surely  be  able  to  read  this  legend  over  all  the 
land  :  "  Ye  and  your  possessions  are  not  your  own." 

Doubtless,  not  every  one  would  be  pleased  with  such 
experiments  in  social  science.  The  more  vigorous  and 
intelligent,  as  well  as  the  more  greedy,  might  prefer  the 
usual  ways  of  men  uncontravened.  The  humbler  and 
less  capable  might  profit  more  than  others  by  the  divine 
ordinances  ;  and  the  good  experienced  could  not  be  un- 
alloyed or  completely  satisfactory.  The  actual  blessed- 
ness in  store  for  the  world's  enjoyment  when  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord  shall  become  supreme  could  not  be 
experienced  in  these  Israelitisli  villagers.  They  had  to 
learn  that  there  was  such  a  kingdom.  They  had  to 
realize  that  the  administration  of  God's  realm  differed 
broadly  from  the  ordinary.  The  suspension  of  tillage 
by  a  whole  nation  at  once  would  not  fail  to  make  an  im- 
pression on  every  mind.  The  peculiarity  and  strange- 
ness of  this  was  heightened  by  the  provisions  concerning 
(^ebts,  slaves,  and  land.  Perhaps  nothing  brought  home 
to  all  the  sense  of  living  under  a  different  and  unusual 
administration  more  powerfully  than  the  permission  for 
any  and  every  one  to  consume  freely  the  fruit  of  any 


138      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

and  all  lands  alike  without  ownership  and  without  labor, 
coupled  with  an  interdict  against  storing  one  grain  away. 
It  was  not  communisin.  It  was  brotherhood  in  the  en- 
joyment of  a  Father's  bounty. 

III.  Readjustment  of  social  conditions.  While  the  Is- 
raelite would  thus  be  learning  to  perceive  that  there  was 
a  sharp  contrast  between  the  kingdom  of  God  and  ordi- 
nary human  society,  he  would  also  be  gradually  learning 
to  notice  some  distinct  features  of  that  kingdom.  Prob- 
ably the  first  one  of  these  features  distinctly  seen  would 
be  a  revision  and  readjustment  of  men's  relations  to  each 
other.  Nothing  can  be  more  discordant  with  the  theory 
that  men  are  all  of  one  blood,  than  tlie  fact  that,  through- 
out all  history,  one  set  of  men  are  found  so  lifted  up  by 
pride  above  other  men.  The  order  of  national  history,  in 
this  respect,  has  usually  begun  with  war,  migration,  or 
some  other  social  convulsion,  which  has  brought  certain 
families  into  superior  position  and  authority.  Tlien  has 
followed  a  greater  and  greater  exaltation  of  the  ruling 
class,  a  deeper  and  deeper  depression  of  the  masses.  Fi- 
nally, a  new  convulsion  throws  elements  to  the  top  more 
or  less  different,  and  the  process  is  repeated.  Only  in 
most  recent  times  has  society  undertaken  to  make  life 
easier  to  the  lowlier.  Yet  the  Christian  Church  has  al- 
ways been  consistent.  Her  first  leaders  were  men  of 
humble  position.  In  all  times  she  has  received  and 
blessed  the  humble,  and  welcomed  them  to  any  of  her 
offices,  even  the  highest.  And  at  last  not  only  the 
Church,  but  our  whole  age,  is  beginning  to  understand 
that  superior  social  position  is  very  unstable.  Even  in 
this  life  it  is  no  longer  a  great  surprise  when  Lazarus 
comes  up  and  Dives  goes  down.  And  our  moral  sense 
appreciates  the  moral  necessity  of  great  readjustments  in 
the  hereafter.  But  there  is  a  wide  gulf  between  that 
readjustment  which  the  ancient  Israelite  learned  to  count 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         139 

upon,  as  iiuleed  the  modern  believer  still  counts  upon  it, 
and  the  readjustment  whose  possibility  now  bewitclies 
men's  minds  and  whose  eager  pursuit  sometimes  threat- 
ens to  shake  the  foundations  of  the  social  fabric.  Men 
covet  what  is  not  their  own.  There  are  very  manj',  very 
glittering  prizes  which  they  may  lawfully  try  to  make 
their  own.  There  is  also  a  very  widespread  desire 
among  men  to  gain  their  ends  by  any  means,  not  scru- 
pling about  lawfulness,  but  only  looking  for  a  safe  oppor- 
tunity. Men  revolt  against  what  seems  to  them  ine- 
quality. They  sometimes  revolt  not  only  against  the 
organization  of  society,  but  against  reason,  religion,  and 
humanity  itself.  They  would  degi'ade  society  to  a  bestial 
herding.  They  deny  the  brotherhood  of  men,  for  that 
means  the  ruling  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  subjection 
of  all  the  brotherhood,  as  his  common  children,  to  Him. 
Very  differently  was  the  Israelite,  by  this  sabbatic  legis- 
lation, taught  to  feel.  He  had  a  possession  which  was 
indelible,  inalienable,  —  a  perfect  entail.  It  corresponded 
exactly  to  the  rank  of  nobility  in  the  most  aristocratic 
kingdoms.  It  was  his  birthright.  What  he  was  to  get 
was  his  very  own  by  the  patent  of  God  himself.  Noth- 
ing whatever  could  deprive  him  of  his  rights.  They 
were  in  his  blood.  Consequently  the  readjustment, 
which  took  place  at  the  appointed  intervals,  was  always 
according  to  law,  and  therefore  in  due  and  known  order. 
Every  villager  would  understand  who  should  come  into 
possession  of  each  house  or  farm,  who  would  escape  the 
burden  of  debt,  who  would  be  set  free  from  bondage. 
The    genealogies  ^   were    everywhere   kept.      Probably 

^  The  very  numerous  genealogies  introduced  into  the  inspired 
text  are  sufficient  evidence  of  the  habit  of  keeping  them  everywhere. 
There  are  a  multitude  of  expressions,  such  as  "  the  house  of  their 
fathers"  (Josh.  xxii.  14),  "family  of  his  father's  tribe"  (Num. 
xxxvi.  6,  12),  which  imply  the  same. 


140       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

written  statements  of  important  contracts  were  likewise 
preserved.  The  direct  interest  of  every  member  of  the 
village  community  would  insure  a  fairly  accurate  tradi- 
tion, which  would  be  a  check  upon  the  elders  who  held 
the  written  documents.  Thus  the  Israelite  would  learn 
to  expect  a  readjustment  completely  free  from  disturb- 
ance or  confusion,  completely  gauged  by  rule  and  record, 
completely  warranted  by  the  ancestral  blood  in  each 
man's  veins,  —  and  yet  a  readjustment  which  no  social 
force,  influence,  or  feeling  ever  has  carried  out  or  even 
ordained,  —  which  stood  by  this  ordinance  of  God  alone, 
and  whose  certainty  and  imminence  would  be  assured  by 
the  return  of  every  Sabbath. 

IV.  Removal  of  indignities.  As  Israel  would  gradu- 
ally become  able  to  see  that  readjustment  was  according 
to  the  mind  of  God,  he  would  also  begin  to  see  that,  since 
certain  results  were  always  promoted  in  every  readjust- 
ment, these  results  must  be  particularly  pleasing  to  God, 
and  particularly  appropriate  to  society  under  divine  ad- 
ministration. Thus  the  sabbatic  system  was  adapted  to 
teach  the  nation  that  dishonor  of  men  by  men  was  ab- 
horrent to  God,  and  that  the  blessing  of  the  Promise  in- 
cluded the  removal  of  indignities.  All  that  was  possible 
in  this  direction  was  done,  and  all  that  was  done  led  in 
this  one  direction.  It  would  not  have  been  rational  to' 
forbid  absolutely  any  surrender  of  land,  or  any  market- 
ing of  personal  service,  or  any  incurring  of  debt  which 
might  lead  to  loss  of  land  or  freedom.  But  neither  folly 
nor  misfortune  were  allowed  to  effect  permanent  abject- 
ness.  The  sabbatic  year  was  the  year  of  the  Lord's  re- 
lease. It  released  those  who  were  pressed  down  below 
the  condition  of  free  manhood. 

In  order  to  comprehend  the  exti'aordinary  character  of 
these  provisions,  we  must  compare  them,  not  with  the 
ideas  now  prevalent,  but  with  those  of  antiquity.     Chris- 


THE  SABBATIC   SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         141 

tianity  has  not  only  inherited  from  Moses  these  very 
ideas,  but  through  the  teaching  of  her  Lord  and  the 
leading  of  his  Spirit,  she  has  developed  them.  She  has 
ever  cried,  "  Honor  all  men.*'  She  has  taught 
men  at  last  that  slavery  is  unnatural.  All  those 
hiws  which  in  our  day  deal  mercifully  with  the  debtor 
and  tlie  pauper  as  well  as  v^ith  the  bondman  are  the  re- 
sult of  her  influence,  and  in  perfect  harmony  with  her 
original  teachings.  They  are  also  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  sabbatic  legislation.  Here  the  Israelite  was  ena- 
bled to  realize  that  the  administration  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  included  the  uplifting  of  man,  and  was  the  anti- 
dote for  any  dishonor  that  might  come  upon  him. 

If  slavery  has  been  truly  called  "  the  open  sore "  of 
this  modern  world,  it  was  the  universal  lepros}^  of  the 
ancient.  It  was  a  contingency  which  might  possibly 
befall  any  and  every  man.  Debt  easily  led  to  it.  Land- 
less poverty  drove  men  to  it.  War  battened  on  it.  One 
may  read  ancient  history  and  easily  overlook  it  amid  the 
circumstances  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  cities  and  empires, 
and  the  varied  interest  of  political  and  social  struggles. 
But  the  fact  was  that  slavery  was  a  universal  bog,  sick- 
ening and  unstable,  on  which  the  whole  of  ancient  society 
was  built.  Any  man  and  any  family  and  any  neighbor- 
hood might  sink  in  it.  Men  and  families  and  communi- 
ties did  incessantly  sink  in  it,  and  its  foulness  poisoned 
all  who  remained  above.  A  battle,  a  bad  harvest,  or 
sickness,  an  error,  a  fault,  inability  to  pay  taxes,  or  even 
sheer  force  and  fraud,  might  seize  any  one.  The  whole 
of  ancient  thought  Vv^as  pervaded  with  a  sort  of  tragic 
melancholy.  Black  Fate,  whom  their  heathen  imagina- 
tion had  put  in  place  of  God,  had  suspended  over  every 
man  not  only  death  but  ruin  worse  than  death ;  and 
that  not  only  for  himself  but  also  for  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren with  him,  —  a  descent  to  the  domination  of  cruelty, 


142        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

lust,  and  exile,  to  the  condition  of  a  beast  and  the  esti- 
mation of  a  thing.  From  the  throne  he  might  go  down 
to  the  depths  of  this  abyss.  In  every  community  that 
achieved  any  degree  of  civilization  the  great  majority 
were  slaves.  Ten  to  one  freeman  as  at  Athens  seems  to 
have  been  no  unusual  proportion.  Incredible  numbers 
of  human  chattels  accumulated  in  Egypt,  Assyria,  and 
Rome,  and  other  great  monarcliies.  The  mind  loathes 
the  contemplation  of  the  festering  horrors  of  their  condi- 
tion. The  Israelite  alone  was  debarred  by  his  constitu- 
tion from  admitting  perpetual  slavery. ^ 

It  is  a  rather  favorite  dogma  of  social  science  that  men 
are  spurred  to  use  their  best  powers  in  the  struggle  for 
a  livelihood  by  the  sense  of  possible  defeat,  and  that  a 
provision  against  possible  defeat  tends  to  unmanliness. 
But  our  age,  instructed  by  Christianity,  has  interposed  in 
a  thousand  ways  to  prevent  utter  defeat.  The  bankrupt 
may  start  again.  The  ignorant  may  have  free  educa- 
tion. For  all  classes  of  the  helpless  and  suffering  and 
destitute  society  provides  a  measure  of  relief,  as  an  obli- 
gation which  is  due  from  the  community  as  a  whole  to 
its  weaker  members.  Precisely  this  Israel  did  for  the 
Israelites  at  the  command  of  her  Sovereign,  and  as  a 
symbol  of  her  sovereign's  beneficent  rule  when  the  Prom- 
ise should  be  fulfilled. 

V.  Divine  Providence.  It  is  true  in  a  certain  sense 
that  a  man  is  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune,  for  a 
man's  real  fortune,  i.  e.,  the  sum  of  real  enjoyment  ob- 
tained by  him  in  life,  is  regulated  by  his  own  voluntary 
choices  and  actions.  But  a  man's  true  fortune,  in  this 
sense,  is  inward.  It  is  independent  of  his  external  con- 
ditions. The  Scriptures  of  both  Testaments  everywhere 
teach  that  the  external  conditions  depend  upon  the  sov- 

^  The  exception  recorded  Ex.  xxi.  5,  6,  ■whereby  an  individual 
might  make  his  own  slavery  perpetual,  did  not  involve  his  children. 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         143 

ereign  will  of  God.  In  our  day  believers  realize  this 
fact  largely,  if  not  chiefly,  through  experience  of  calam- 
ity. The  age,  through  its  wonderful  achievements  and 
no  less  through  the  wonderful  development  of  present 
comfort  and  possible  elevation  among  the  masses,  has 
fostered  the  opinion  that  any  desired  success  is  possible 
to  a  man.  In  the  day  of  sorrow  he  realizes  the  fact  that 
he  is  not  master  of  his  own  outward  and  material  for- 
tune, that  the  external  conditions  of  greatest  value  to  his 
personal  happiness  are  not  subject  to  his  will  or  depend- 
ent on  his  choices  or  actions.  The  ideal  which  Chris- 
tianity holds  concerning  success  in  life  is  expressed  in 
words  uttered  by  the  Lord,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  ^^  .^  , .  , 
of  the  mouth  of  God."  This  great  lesson 
of  Providence  was  most  carefully  taught  Israel  by  the 
sabbatic  legislation.  The  most  careless  and  the  most 
stupid  could  not  fail  to  learn  that  he  did  not  depend 
wholly  on  the  land  he  tilled  for  bread.  There  were  two 
parts  to  the  lesson.  On  the  one  hand  he  had,  forced 
upon  his  attention  the  fact,  that  he  was  only  a  tenant, 
and  not  the  owner  of  the  land.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  was  compelled  to  notice  the  bounty  of  the  owner 
and  landlord,  which  was  always  larger  according  to  his 
straits. 

As  Israel  was  strictly  agricultural  originally,  the  sab- 
batic legislation  naturally  bore  upon  land.  But  more 
than  this,  all  in  it  that  was  peculiarly  JNIosaic,  and  there- 
fore extraneous  to  the  sacred  day  of  earlier  times,  was 
explicitly  addressed  to  farm  life.  Thus  in  the  Fourth 
Commandment  rest  is  ordained  for  animals  that  do  farm 
work,  but  flocks  are  not  mentioned.  Again,  the  only 
work  suspended,  except  on  the  weekly  Sabbath  and  the 
Day  of  Atonement,  was  farm  work,  called  in  our  version 
"  servile  work."     And  again,  the  restoration  of  land  in 


144      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  3'ear  of  Jubilee  applied  only  to  fields,  and  to  houses 
in  unwalled  villages,  that  is,  to  farmers'  dwellings  and 
lands. 

The  double  lesson  of  his  own  tenancy  and  of  his  land- 
lord's bounty  was  impressed  through  long  continued  and 
reiterated  experience  of  three  different  sorts,  all  three  the 
product  of  this  sabbatic  agricultural  legislation. 

First,  of  course,  in  impressiveness  was  the  frequent 
arrest  of  tillage.  This  was  so  arranged  as  to  make  the 
arbitrary  authority  of  God  peculiarly  sensible.  The  tra- 
ditions of  the  old  sacred  day  would  naturally  harmonize 
with  its  development  into  a  day  of  complete  rest,  when 
agriculture  replaced  pastoral  life.  Unquestionably  the 
exigency  of  tlie  day  would  be  felt  as  the  jjressure  of  arbi- 
trary power,  but  it  would  be  not  so  much  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  day  as  in  the  stringency  with  which  rest  was 
enforced.  So,  too,  in  regard  to  the  sabbatic  year,  it 
would  seem  not  unnatural  that  land  should  have  its  rest. 
It  is  not  uncommon  now  in  Europe  for  agricultural  leases 
to  stipulate  that  in  certain  years  the  ground  should  lie 
fallow.  Such  a  clause  would  make  the  landlord's  pve- 
rogative  felt,  and  yet  W'Ould  be  so  completely  warranted 
by  general  opinion  that  it  could  not  seem  oppressive. 
Only  when  the  whole  estate  was  to  lie  fallow  at  once,  or 
still  more,  in  the  case  of  Israel,  the  whole  territory  of  the 
nation,  would  the  weight  of  that  prerogative  seem  heavy. 
As  before,  it  was  a  matter  not  of  essential  character,  but 
of  degree.  It  has  been  noticed  that  the  spring  and 
autumn  festivals  required  a  journey  to  the  seat  of  the 
tabernacle  at  times  specially  convenient  to  the  farmer. 
Passover  came  about  the  end  of  seeding.  Tabernacles 
about  the  end  of  harvesting.  But  in  midsummer,  in  the 
midst  of  wheat-cutting,  right  athwart  the  husbandman's 
busiest  season,  came  Pentecost.  And  so  in  the  seventh 
month,  when   every  effort  would  be  made  to  finish  the 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.  145 

harvest  before  the  fifteenth,  two  extra  clays  of  intermis- 
sion were  imposed.  Then,  above  all,  every  seventh  fal- 
low year  was  followed  by  another,  and  then  the  man  to 
■whom  Jubilee  gave  an  estate  was  compelled  to  acknowl- 
edge his  sovereign's  prerogative  by  waiting  a  whole  year, 
after  the  land  was  pronounced  his,  before  entering  into 
individual  possession.  Were  not  all  these  provisions 
adapted  to  produce  in  the  popular  mind  a  profound  sense 
of  the  grasp  with  which  God,  their  Landlord,  held  his 
land? 

A  second  sort  of  experience,  of  an  entirely  different 
kind,  would  be  more  slowly  realized.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible, under  the  working  of  this  legislation,  for  any  man 
to  become  rich  in  land.  It  is  true  that  the  original  allot- 
ments were  not  all  equal.  The  divine  prerogative  was 
exerted  in  apportioning  them.  But  whatever  a  man 
might  get,  the  jubilee  year  stript  him  of  all  but  his 
pi'oper  share  of  tliat  which  his  ancestor  had  received. 
Great  fortunes  were  thus  discouraged.  The  law  of  the 
landlord  forbade  any  one  man  to  accumulate  many 
farms.  If  the  rich  young  man,  who  came  to  our  Lord 
boasting  of  his  faithfulness  to  the  law,  had  in-  -^^^^^  -^q  . 
herited  or  retained  his  "great  possessions"  ■^'~^^' 
through  non-observance  of  the  jubilee  statute,  the  Lord's 
answer  may  well  have  sent  him  away  downcast.  The 
Lord's  land  was  for  all  his  people.  No  one  was  to  have 
more  than  his  proper  share,  in  order  that  no  one  might 
be  without.  And,  therefore,  while  the  prerogative  was 
so  strenuously  maintained,  the  bountiful  kindness  of  God 
toward  his  whole  people  was  bound  up  with  it. 

A  third  sort  of  experience,  quite  different,  would 
impress  the  same  lesson,  perhaps  yet  more  distinctly, 
on  the  common  mind.  For  in  the  regular  and  ap- 
pointed sabbatic  succession,  not  only  were  the  fields 
fallow  and  the  farmers  turned  to  other  pursuits,  but  the 
10 


146       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

whole    population  —  the    poor,    the    stranger,    the    just 

emancipated  slave — were  all  free  to  all  that  the  untilled 

ground  would  produce.     This  privilege  was  not 

i,l!  ^\-    '    limited  to  the  chance  growth  of  the  corn-fields. 

25 :  2-7.  .  ° 

Grapes  and  olives,  whose  crops  might  be  only 
a  little  diminished  by  the  abeyance  of  tillage,  were 
specially  mentioned.  Like  everything  else,  they  were 
free  to  all.  There  was  only  one  restriction.  No  one 
should  harvest  anything.^  No  grain  could  be  stacked 
away.  No  olives  could  be  pressed  into  oil,  no  grapes  into 
wine.  Nothing  should  be  laid  up.  But  for  immediate 
wants,  every  one  was  absolutely  free  to  take  what  he 
could  find.  All  stood  on  a  perfect  equality.  Pie  who 
called  himself  the  owner  had  no  better  right  than  the  one 
whom  he  yesterday  called  his  bondman  ;  no  better  right 
than  the  peddling  Canaanite  who  was  hawking  his  wares 
thi-ough  the  village,  or  the  runawa}^  slave  from  Egypt 
or  Damascus,  who  had  there  sought  an  asylum.  By  the 
Lord's  command,  and  under  the  landlord's  prerogative, 
every  acre  of  his  land,  both  pasture  and  tilth,  witli  every 
ear  of  corn  and  nut  and  berry  on  it,  was  free  to  all  his 
people  and  to  all  who  were  under  his  people's  protection, 
not  only  the  stranger,  but  their  domestic  beasts. 

As  the  Aveeks  of  years  rolled  on  to  weeks  of  jubilees 
and  weeks  of  centuries,  would  not  such  experiences  cre- 
ate at  length,  in  the  mind  of  Israel,  and  develop  into 
clear  outline  that  double  conception,  on  the  one  side,  of 
God's  prerogative,  on  the  other  side,  of  his  benevolence, 
which  we  call  Providence  ? 

VI.  National  brotherhood.  To  this  nation  of  farmers, 
in  every  seventh  year,  farming  was  interdicted.  What 
could  they  do  during  these  years?     They  would  hardly 

1  By  comparing  Lev.  xxv.  2-7  with  Ex.  xxiii.  10,  11,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  prohibition  in  Leviticus  is  only  against  storing  up.  Verses 
6  and  7  show  that  immediate  consumption  was  permitted. 


THE   SABBATIC   SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.  147 

idle  their  time  away  in  the  villages.  Women's  work  was 
not  suspended  during  the  Sabbath  of  the  fields.  Milk 
and  butter  and  cheese  would  still  be  made,  beside  the  or- 
dinary work  of  the  cottage  homes.  The  women  would  not 
spare  their  reproach  and  scorn  if  their  husbands  found 
nothing  to  do  and  did  nothing  the  whole  year  long. 
And  it  is  not  likely  that  they  could  afford  it.  Nor  can  it 
be  believed  that  the  sharp  acquisitive  instincts  of  their 
race  would  not  lead  them  to  employ  this  year  for  profit. 

Three  pursuits  would  be  open  to  each  one,  —  trade, 
handicraft,  stud3^  Each  of  these  pursuits  would  lead  to 
travel.  Now  travel,  for  its  own  sake,  is  a  very  recent 
invention  ;  but  travel  for  the  sake  of  trafficking,  or  of 
finding  employment,  or  of  gaining  information,  is  older 
than  Moses.  So,  whichever  way  the  farmer  should 
turn  his  steps  this  year,  he  would  see  more  of  men  and 
places,  he  would  see  more  men  and  more  places,  than 
usual.  The  mere  agriculturist  is  isolated.  He  knows, 
proverbially,  little  of  the  larger  affairs  of  men.  He  is 
proverbially  ready  to  magnify  the  importance  of  every- 
thing in  his  personal  environment,  and  to  belittle  all 
else.  But  by  the  sabbatic  system  the  Hebrew  farmer 
was  trained  to  extend  his  sj'mpathies  and  to  enlarge  his 
experience  of  men.  The  village  Sabbath,  as  has  been 
noticed,  had  a  very  powerful  influence  to  keep  active  and 
to  develop  his  social  character.  The  ter-annual  journey 
to  the  national  sanctuary,  and  the  commingling  there 
with  crowds  of  fellow-worshipers,  would  still  further 
strengthen  and  widen  the  sense  of  civic  intercommunity. 
But  in  all  these  gatherings  he  would  be  only  a  farmer 
who  had  left  his  farm  for  the  moment,  and  would,  as  soon 
as  possible,  return  to  it.  How  much  more  would  be  ef- 
fected by  the  years  which  completely  broke  up  the  isola- 
tion of  husbandry,  even  the  modified  isolation  of  Israel- 
itish  husbandry,  and  drove  the  farmer  into  continuous 


148      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

intercourse  with  men.  For,  wliatever  the  occupations  of 
these  sabbatic  years  might  be,  they  would  not  scatter 
men  over  outlying  fields,  but  would  draw  them  together 
to  bazaars  and  streets  and  schools.  The  exigencies  of 
trade,  craft,  or  study  would  lead  men  to  seek  one  an- 
other, to  approach  non-acquaintances,  to  join  novel  associ- 
ations. Had  the  law  been  faithfully  observed,  this  would 
doubtless  have  been  the  favorite  year  for  public  works 
and  for  national  market  fairs.  It  should  be  remarked, 
also,  that  when  numbers  of  men  leave  agriculture,  for 
any  reason,  their  tendency  always  is  not  to  the  smaller 
villages  and  towns,  but  to  the  larger.^  There  would  be 
no  less  a  tendency  of  these  Hebrew  farmers  to  flock  into 
the  largest  towns,  whei*e  the  greatest  amount  and  great- 
est variety  of  occupations  might  be  found.  Most  of  the 
villagers  would  be  in  such  a  large  town,  or  would  be 
traveling  about  during  a  good  part  of  the  year.  Mod- 
ern pleasure  travel  certainly  broadens  men's  views,  al- 
though it  does  not  always  seem  to  increase  the  sense  of 
fellowship  with  men  of  other  lands  and  tongues  ;  and, 
moreover,  not  many  of  the  tourists  are  farmers.  But  the 
Israelite  villager's  year  of  busy  dealing  with  men  of  his 
own  blood  and  tongue  and  faith,  —  a  year  too  short  to  de- 
velop the  hardness  of  the  regular  trader,  yet  long  enough 
to  sharpen  the  blunted  sympathies  of  the  regular  farmer, 
—  must  make  him  less  of  a  villager  and  more  of  an  Isra- 
elite. Instead  of  holdin";  his  village  and  his  fellow-villa- 
gers  for  all  his  world,  or  of  giving  to  the  national  shrine 
alone  a  share  of  his  village  pride,  he  would  learn  that 
everywhere  his  countrymen  were  Israelites  too;  he  would 

1  Note  the  flocking  of  negroes  into  the  cities  after  emancipation  in 
the  Southern  States.  Also  the  growth  of  lar^e  towns  as  compared 
with  agricultural  villages  in  P^nglantl,  and  in  a  less  degree,  on  the 
Continent.  These  villages,  however,  were  very  unlike  those  of  Is- 
rael. 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         149 

have  acquaintances  in  all  parts  of  the  land;  lie  would 
Lave  national  interests  and  national  sympathies,  embrac- 
ing every  citizert,  and  he  would  feel  himself  a  member  of 
a  national  brotherhood. 

Every  item  of  the  sabbatic  legislation  tended  in  the 
same  direction.  Whatever  illustrated  the  sovereignty  of 
God  illustrated  also  the  communion  of  God's  people.  As 
in  every  other  case,  the  practical  experience  was  adapted 
to  bring  out  the  mental  conception,  as  the  experience 
was  repeated  again  and  again.  Thus,  starting  from  the 
weekly  Sabbath,  and  on  through  all  the  series,  Israel  had 
before  him  an  object  lesson  of  unity  and  fellowship,  — 
a  lesson  of  wliat,  under  God's  covenant,  human  brother- 
hood might  be  among  the  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

VII.  Incompleteness.  Upon  the  typical  village  life, 
which  has  been  under  contemplation,  one  more  effect  was 
certain  to  be  produced  by  age-long  experience  of  the  sab- 
batic system.  That  system  was  adapted  and  intended  to 
educate  Israel  to  a  perception  of  his  essential  incomplete- 
ness and  transientness,  and  to  prepare  him  for  the  devel- 
opment of  another  sacred  day  as  different  as  his  Mosaic 
institutions  were  different  from  those  of  the  patriarchs. 
It  is  indeed  strange  that  the  nation,  instead  of  realizing 
this,  became  fanatic  in  their  zeal  for  the  preservation  of 
their  Sabbath  as  it  was.  Though  they  looked  for  a  Mes- 
siah who  should  inaugurate  a  new  administration,  they 
never  seemed  to  imagine  that  either  the  Sabbath  or  the 
sacrifice  could  be  changed  by  Him.  Nor  can  we  realize 
that  a  change  was  intended  from  the  first,  unless  we  turn 
away  our  regard  from  that  idea  of  the  Sabbath  which 
represents  the  hard  narrow  bigotry  of  the  pharisaic  age, 
and  which  evidently  aroused  the  antipathy  of  our  Lord. 
The  apple  blossom  is  beautiful  and  fragrant.  When  the 
apple  is  ripe,  a  few  shriveled  and  unsightly  fragments  of 


1-50      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

tissue  represent  the  blossom.  They  also  represent  the 
pharisaic  sabbath  so  far  as  it  was  pharisaic.  Its  vice  was 
that  it  refused  to  accept  the  whole  of  GotVs  teaching. 
It  rejected  the  ripe  fruit,  but  it  carefully  saved  the 
wretched  shreds  of  dead  petals,^  tricked  them  out  with  a 
fantastic  setting,  and  made  of  them  a  sort  of  charm,  as  if 
their  Sabbath  (not  the  Mosaic)  were  the  central  point  of 
Judaism,  the  covenant  of  God's  assured  favor.  Their 
Sabbath  was  not  the  Mosaic,^  because  they  separated  it 
from  the  sabbatic  system ;  making  much  of  the  one,  they 
slighted  the  other.  Under  the  circumstances,  this  was 
natural,  and,  except  by  divine  imposition,  unavoidable. 
But  they  were  responsible  for  those  circumstances  in 
which  they  had  placed  themselves  by  their  own  act. 
Israel  had  ceased  to  be  an  agricultural  people.  The 
greater  part  of  the  nation  were  settled  in  foreign  lands 
where  their  own  land  laws  could  not  be  enforced,  and 
where  their  sabbatic  system  in  its  integrity  could  not 
operate.  This  change  was  a  part  of  the  punishment  of 
the  nation  by  the  Babylonian  Captivit}^  In  a  notable 
passage,  in  which  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Chronicles 
refers  to  the  threats  recorded  in  Leviticus,^  it  is  asserted 
that  neglect  of  the  sabbatical  years  was  one  of  the  chief 
sins  punished  by  the  exile.  After  the  return  from  Bab- 
ylon the  old  legislation  was  revived  as  far  as  possible. 
There  is  evidence  that  the  sabbatic  years  were  sometimes 
observed.  Probably  some  occasional  effort  was  made  to 
enforce  the  Jubilee.     But  the  system,  as  a  whole,  never 

^  "Dead  petals,"  that  is,  forms  without  spirit.  See  Study  VII., 
page  190,  — the  letter  of  the  law  observed  with  no  comprehension  of 
its  meaning,  no  interest  in  its  intended  result;  and  therefore,  as  in- 
evitably happens,  miscomprehended,  misobserved,  misapiilied. 

2  "  Not  the  Mosaic  ;  "  that  is,  it  did  not  have  the  influence  on  them, 
or  the  character  in  their  eyes,  which  was  intended  by  Moses. 

s  Compare  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  21  with  Lev.  xxvi.  34,  35.  See,  also, 
Jer.  xxxiv.  13,  1-k. 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM   OF  ISRAEL.  151 

agiiiii  existed  in  its  entii'ety  and  vigor.  The  nation  did 
not  choose  to  veoccupy  their  own  land.  Asia  and  Egypt 
were  ahke  under  Persian  rule,  and  every  Jew  in  them 
was  made  free  to  return.  They  did  not  choose  to  do  so. 
Hence  the  dispersion  could  not  keep  the  law,  for  they 
were  not  in  their  own  land.  And  for  this  reason,  as  well 
as  on  account  of  foreign  suzerainty,  it  was  not  possible  to 
restore  family  estates  ^  according  to  the  old  patents.  Else 
Joseph  and  Mary  would  not  have  been  housed  in  a  stable 
at  Bethlehem,  for  by  the  law  they  should  have  had  some  of 
the  fields  which  had  once  been  tilled  by  Boaz  and  Jesse. 
Sometimes  well-disposed  foreign  rulers,  like  Alexander, 
remitted  taxes  in  the  seventh  year,  and  thus  favored 
the  law.  While  the  Maccabees  ruled,  the  non-tillage  of 
that  year  may  have  been  enforced  in  districts  under  their 
rule.  But  there  were  only  a  few  intervals  in  all  the  five 
hundred  years  after  the  return,  when  the  rulers  had  the 
power  and  will  to  enforce  it  anywhere;  and  then  these 
rulers  could  not  enforce  it  over  all  the  land.  Moreover 
the  nation  largely  turned  away  from  farming  to  pursuits 
not  affected  by  the  sabbatic  law.  Inevitably,  therefore, 
that  system  dwindled  in  the  popular  estimation  until  the 
Sabbath  alone  became  noticeable.  But  God  had  ordained 
to  teach  them  what  the  Sabbath  meant  through  that 
system.  They  disregarded  the  illustrations  and  lost  the 
full  meaning  of  the  text.  What  they  expressed  by  their 
own  part  of  the  observance,  loyalty,  remained  clear 
enough.^  But  what  God  expressed  in  his  command  they 
failed  to  see  understandingly,  because  they  did  not  look 
in  the  direction  He  bade  them. 

^  Probably  the  young  ruler  who  was  so  anxious  to  be  "  perfect," 
Matt.  xix.  21,* could  not  have  found  the  rightful  owners  of. his  lands 
if  he  had  sought  them.  But  if  the  land  was  not  lawfully  his,  he 
could  not  lawfully  keep  it.     Let  the  poor  have  the  benefit. 

^  "  Clear  enough,"  as  loyalty,  yet,  as  has  been  shown,  loyalty  to 
the  nation  rather  than  loyalty  to  God  himself. 


152       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

These  considevations  seem  necessarj^  in  order  to  make 
it  clear  why  the  Jews  of  onr  Lord's  day  did  not  and 
could  not  see  in  the  Sabbath  what  they  ought  to  have 
seen,  what  was  really  there  as  God  ordained  it,  and  what 
w^as  the  centre  and  seed  ^  of  the  whole.  It  was  a  pro- 
found lesson  to  set  before  simple  farmers.  But  there 
was  a  millennium  and  a  half  for  the  study  hour,  and  each 
step  was  simple  enough  for  a  child.  There  was  the 
promise  of  blessing  to  all  nations.  Age  after  age  would 
bring  into  view  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  blessedness 
in  more  and  more  distinctness  of  form  and  coloring.  At 
length  every  sabbath  would  suggest  the  details,  as  we 
have  studied  them,  of  the  rule  of  God  over  loyal  citizens 
in  that  day  of  perfect  blessing :  human  brotherhood  un- 
der the  divine  covenant ;  a  divine  cure  for  the  festering 
sores  of  society  I'emoving  every  dishonor  ;  a  revision  and 
readjustment  of  social  conditions  by  divine  authority 
and  with  divine  skillfulness  ;  a  divine  administration  of 
society  under  principles  of  government  in  sharp  contrast 
to  those  that  have  prevailed  ;  a  large  future  approaching, 
in  which  this  divine  sovereignty  will  be  manifested,  ex- 
ercised, and  acknowledged ;  it  might  well  take  ages  to 
spell  out  all  these  things  from  the  sabbath  alphabet. 
But,  whether  Israel  learned  them  or  not,  the  Spirit  of 
God  who  set  the  object  lessons  before  Israel  has  at  length 
made  these  conceptions  of  the  coming  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  sufficiently  familiar  to  us,  the  later  heirs  of  Abra- 
ham. We  are  the  witnesses  to  ourselves  of  the  other 
part  of  the  object  lesson,  the  share  of  "all  nations"  in 
the  blessing.  If  Israel  had  been  faithful,  doubtless  their 
development  or  absorption  into  the  larger  dispensation 

^  "  Centre  and  seed."  The  most  important  thing  in  the  Sabbath, 
its  very  centre,  was  that  whicli  God  taught  men  or  revealed  to  men 
by  it.  And  this  divine  thouglit  in  it  related  to  the  Promise,  and 
ike  a  seed  waited  a  future  development. 


THE  SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.         153 

would  have  been  peaceful,  voluntary,  and  full  of  honor. 
If  they  had  been  faithful,  even  these  plain  rustics  would 
have  seen  in  due  time  that  a  change  was  inevitable,  would 
have  become  prepared  for  it,  and  would  have  desired  it. 
For  as  the  ages  went  by,  and  the  actions  and  habits 
caused  by  the  sabbatic  sj'stem,  together  with  the  details 
of  the  system  itself,  became  so  familiar  as  no  longer  to 
require  an  effort  of  the  mind  to  attend  to  them,  or  an 
effort  of  the  will  to  perform  them,  and  therefore  the 
mind  could  embody  the  experiences  connected  with  the 
system  in  such  abstract  conceptions  as  we  have  studied, 
making  these  conceptions  continually  more  and  more 
definite  and  distinct,  then  would  it  become  plain  even  to 
those  farmer  folk,  that  others  than  Israelites  must  learn 
to  worship  their  God  without  inhabiting  their  land  or 
becoming  part  of  their  nation  ;  that  the  fellowship  of  the 
Promise  could  not  be  limited  to  a  tribe  or  a  province ; 
that  the  bounty  and  the  prerogative  of  the  Almighty 
were  not  to  be  restricted  to  Hebrew  land  ;  that  the  rights 
He  exercised  over  that  land  would  certainly  one  day  be 
enforced  on  the  same  principles  over  land  now  heathen, 
for  all  the  earth  was  his ;  that  He,  who  intervened  to 
remedy  the  dishonor  of  men,  would  surely  one  day  ob- 
literate and  prevent  every  trace  of  degradation  and  cor- 
ruption ;  that  the  revision  and  readjustment  could  not 
always  be  confined  to  farmers,  but  must  one  day  embrace 
all  classes  of  men ;  that  it  could  not  be  possible  for  two 
diverse  and  contrasted  administrations  of  society  to  con- 
tinue always  side  by  side;  that  at  length  the  principles 
of  the  divine  administration  must  cover  not  one  year  in 
seven  but  every  year  ;  and  yet  that  this  must  be  some- 
how in  the  spirit  and  not  in  the  letter,  for  the  letter  car- 
ried out  every  year  would  extinguish  agriculture  and 
take  away  man's  bread  ;  and  that  some  strange  inexplic- 
able significance  attached  to  the  fact,  that  when  the  high- 


154       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   TTIE  LOHD'S  DAY. 

est  point  in  the  system  was  readied,  when  the  climax  ar- 
rived, which  could  arrive  but  once  within  the  ordinary 
limits  of  active  life,  the  crown  rested  not  on  the  closing 
year  of  the  seventh  year  week,  but  on  the  first  of  a  new 
year  week,  so  that  while  the  weeks  rolled  on  in  uninter- 
rupted sevens  the  highest  dignity  was  strangely  diverted 
from  the  seventh  to  the  first ! 

There  are  many  riddles  of  Providence  which  cannot 
be  solved,  except  as  the  Lion  of  Judah,  the  Lamb  of 
God,  opens,  one  by  one,  the  ideals  of  his  book.  This  is 
one.  No  Israelite  could  possibly  have  imagined  a  way 
in  which  the  necessary  changes  could  be  accomplished. 
No  Christian  of  this  day  can  comprehend  how  the  great 
development  would  have  been  effected,  if  Israel  had 
been  joerfectly  faithful  to  his  trust.  But  the  truth  stands 
before  every  one  who  candidly  and  thoroughly  studies 
their  practical  working,  that  the  Mosaic  institutions  did 
themselves  contemplate  and  teach  such  a  development 
for  themselves,  —  a  development  in  which  their  external 
forms,  their  very  blossom,  must  die.  Under  their  nor- 
mal working  these  farmers  could  not  have  failed  in  due 
time  to  expect  and  to  desire  the  fruit  more  than  the 
blossom. 

The  two  great  systems  of  sacrifice  and  sabbatisra 
were  in  this  respect  perfectly  accordant.  The  sacrificial 
system  as  well  as  the  other  testified  distinctly  to  its  own 
incompleteness.  The  greatest  pains  were  taken  in  it  to 
impress  these  truths,  that  God  in  this  ritual  did  not  pun- 
ish man  but  sin  ;  that  men  could  not  placate  his  wrath 
as  Cain  and  the  heathen  had  alwaj's  essayed,  but  that 
He  would  dispense  mercy  and  favor  of  his  own  Sovereign 
free  will ;  and  yet,  that  He  required  an  exhibition  of 
the  punishment  of  sin  by  perfect  innocence  submitting 
to  death,  and  an  exhibition  of  intercession  in  the  station 
of  greatest  dignity  and  purity.     But  the  system  which 


THE   SABBATIC  SYSTEM  OF  ISRAEL.  155 

showed  all  this  ^  was  workable  only  in  a  small  nation 
and  a  small  territory.  When  the  nation  shonld  increase 
to  many  millions,  and  enlarge  its  border  "  from  the  Eu- 
phrates to  the  uttermost  sea,"  the  system  must  pg„(.  i^. 
break  down.  It  was  not  a  human  possibility  that  ^'^' 
the  sacrifices,  according  to  the  strict  ritual,  by  the  hands 
of  the  qualified  priesthood,  at  the  one  single  prescribed 
locality,  could  have  been  duly  offered  by  and  for  such  vast 
numbers  as  might  come  from  so  extensive  a  district.  ^  At 
some  point  of  time,  the  nation,  if  they  had  been  faithful, 
would  have  perceived  that  this  could  not  continue,  and 
would  have  asked  with  reverent  curiosity  for  the  divine 
solution  of  the  problem. 

The  utterances  of  the  prophets  do  not  belong  to  this 
subject,  but  there  was  many  a  word  in  the  books  of 
Moses  himself  referring  to  the  consummation.  Especially 
was  then  that  statement  never  forgotten  that  a  j^j^^  ^. 
Prophet  should  one  day  arise  like  unto  him,  that  ^^' 
is,  an  organizer  of  a  new  divine  administration.  "  Him 
shall  ye  hear,"  was  the  great  leader's  parting  word. 
Judali  had  a  tribal  promise  of  royal  preeminence,  but  it 
pointed  to  that   advent  of  a  different,  yet  an  organically 

1  A  modern  Israelite  mii;lit  travel  from  New  York  to  Jerusalem  in 
less  time  than  a  subject  of  King  David  would  have  needed  to  go  from 
Ourfa  to  the  same  city.  It  would  indeed  be  quite  as  easy  now  for  all 
the  Jews  in  the  world  to  keep  the  law  literally  (supposing  Jerusalem 
given  up  to  them),  as  it  ever  could  have  been  for  the  population  of 
the  largest  territory  held  by  ancient  Israel,  namely,  from  the  Eu- 
phrates on  the  north  to  the  Egyptian  border. 

2  It  seems  probable  that  the  enormous  number  of  250,000  passover 
lambs  were  slain  in  the  last  age  of  Judaism.  But  in  order  to  accom- 
plish so  much,  a  certain  amount  of  accommodation  as  to  the  ritual 
seems  to  have  been  admitted.  But  the  limit  of  possible  accommoda- 
tion must  have  been  approached  while  the  limit  of  faithful  ritual  was 
already  past.  See  Josephus,  Wars  of  the  Jews,  vi.  9.  In  the  wil- 
derness some  20,000  lambs  must  have  been  required,  —  a  large  work 
certainly. 


156        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

derived  Ruler,  "  till  Sliiloh  come."  Moreover  there  was 
the  great  promise  to  Abraham,  the  Magna  Charta  of  the 
nation,  the  very  point  of  its  origin,  first  given  to  the 
patriarch  when  he  was  "  called  "  to  leave  Chaldea.  It 
was  thrice  uttered  by  the  Almighty  in  Abraham's  time. 
It  was  repeated  to  Isaac  and  again  to  Jacob.  No  Israel- 
ite who  remembered  that  Abraham  was  his  father  could 
possibly  forget  that  a  Seed  of  Abraham  must 

Gal.  3 :  16.  J  o 

come  to  inaugurate  the  blessing.  It  is  possible 
(though  a  disputed  and  uncertain  point)  that  the  cove- 
nant name  of  God  himself  conveyed  to  the  minds  of  the 
ancient  Hebrews  an  intimation  of  his  purpose  to  appear 
in  some  way  in  alliance  with  the  very  flesh  and  blood 
of  humanity.  That  may  or  may  not  be  true.  It  is 
true  that  there  was  a  solemn  refrain,  echoing  alike  from 
the  Adamic  and  Abrahamic  promises,  caught  up  in  the 
dying  blessings  of  Jacob  and  of  Moses,  and  repeated  like 
the  subtle  motive  of  a  fugue  through  all  cadences  of  the 
statutes  for  sacrifices,  festivals,  and  Sabbaths,  —  He  will 
come  —  the  Seed,  the  Shiloh,  the  Prophet  will  come.  He 
will  gather  all  nations  to  fellowship  with  Israel.  Israel 
shall  spread  his  blessedness  over  all  lands.  He  will  re- 
move every  curse,  and  govern  the  world  in  righteousness 
and  love.  He  will  provide  a  sacrifice  suited  in  cluiracter 
and  occasion  for  all  the  earth  and  all  the  nations.  And 
He  will  renew  the  Sabbath  so  that  the  land  law  shall  be- 
come earth  law,  and  the  sign  of  the  covenant  with  a 
petty  tribe  shall  become  the  sign  of  the  loyalty  of  all 
nations. 


STUDY  VII. 

THE  PERMANENT    AND    THE    TRANSIENT    IN   THE   SAB- 
BATIC  SYSTEM. 

"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  — 
Mark  ii.  27. 

Three  circumstances  of  the  greatest  importance  com- 
bined, as  has  been  seen,  for  the  education  of  Israel  up  to 
clear  consciousness  of  this  fact,  that  his  system  was  pre- 
parative only,  and  must  eventually  pass  into  some  larger 
development  as  yet  unknowable.  The  first  of  these  cir- 
cumstances was  the  form  of  the  grand  Abrahamic  Prom- 
ise. It  included  "  all  nations."  Israel  was  one  only 
among  them  all.  The  second  was  the  character  of  the 
legislation.  It  was  limited  by  the  land  of  Canaan  and 
its  agriculture,  and  therefore  was  inadequate  to  the  Prom- 
ise. The  third  was  the  expectation  of  a  person  to  appear 
in  the  future  for  the  harmonizing  of  these  incongruities 
and  for  the  perfection  of  all  that  was  incomplete.  Not 
only  was  tliere  ijrimd  facie  an  incongruity  between  the 
promise  and  the  law,  but  there  was  in  the  law  itself  a 
series  of  paradoxes.  Certain  principles  were  plainly  in- 
volved in  its  provisions,  and  yet  these  same  principles 
were  traversed  in  their  details  by  certain  other  condi- 
tions which  restrained  their  full  development.  We  have 
now  in  our  hands  the  key  to  this  paradox.  He  of  whom 
Moses  prophesied  has  come.  The  development  has  taken 
place.  Tile  principles  formerly  taught  as  object  lessons 
are  now  familiar  theses  in  the  every-day  thought  of  the 


158       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Church.  So  much  of  the  old  system  has  fallen  away  that 
we  are  in  dangler  of  overlookins:  the  lamer  and  better 
part  which  has  become  our  own  inheritance.  We  are  in 
danger,  indeed,  of  forgetting  that  what  we  have  is  thus 
inherited.  It  has  been  our  own  so  long,  and  has  become 
associated  in  our  times  with  so  mucli  greater  than  its 
ancient  glory,  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  it  was 
ever  the  possession  of  another  before  us.  Let  not,  how- 
ever, this  language  confuse  the  thought.      Of  our  great, 

our  divine  inheritance,  we  have  as  yet  received 
23;  coL  i!   only   a  foretaste.     When   our  Lord's  kingdom 

is  established  we  shall  have  a  share  in  it  with 
Him.  Our  inheritance  from  Israel  consists  of  ideas, 
hopes,  expectations  concerning  life  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  It  ought  not,  therefore,  to  be  hard  for  us  to  un- 
derstand, both  how  Israel  was  given  the  rudiments  of 
these  ideas,  hopes,  expectations,  and  how  also  their  de- 
velopment was  necessarily  to  him  a  riddle.  A  further 
analysis  of  this  riddle  ought  to  enable  us  to  see,  in  the 
terms  of  its  jDaradoxes,  the  prophecy  of  our  privileges,  for 
it  turned  on  the  extension  of  the  blessing,  that  is,  of  the 
kingdom  or  rule  of  God.  In  three  directions  this  sabbatic 
system  exhibited  the  extending  unlimited  character  of 
that  blessing,  and  yet  by  its  own  provisions  stopped  short 
of  the  expansion  which  it  signified  and  promised.  Thus 
the  riddle  or  paradox  may  be  considered  with  reference 
to  extension  in  territory,  to  extension  in  time,  and  to  ex- 
tension in  the  application  of  social  principles. 

I.  The  territorial  riddle.  Attention  has  been  already 
given  ^  to  the  very  important  fact,  that  so  marked  a  con- 
trast was  made  by  the  Mosaic  legislation  between  the 
sacrificial  and  the  sabbatic  systems.  Perhaps  the  differ- 
ence which  would  first  impress  itself  upon  an  Israelite  ^ 

1  See  Study  V.,  pp.  108-110. 

2  The  sacrifice  consisted  (see  Study  IV.,  pp.  101,  102,  and  note 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     159 

would  be  the  limitation  of  the  one  compared  with  the 
unlimited  extension  of  the  other.  For  the  sacrifice  was 
central,  restricted,  mediatorial.  It  was  allowed  in  only- 
one  single  specified  place,  with  precise,  numer-  peut.  i2: 
ous,  and  invariable  rites,  and  the  intervention  of  ^^'^'*" 
a  personage  of  peculiar  non-assumable,  non-transferable 
dignity.  But  the  Sabbath  touched  every  place.  It  was 
as  pervasive  as  the  light  of  its  sun.  It  knew  no  pre- 
scribed rites  or  forms  of  worship. ^  It  was  not  dependent 
upon  jjriest,  or  Levite,  or  chief,  or  any  other  official  repre- 
sentative. It  was  the  unincumbered,  direct  expression 
of  a  man's  personal  allegiance  to  the  covenant  God. 
Thus  it  spread  over  all  the  land.  But  why  not  over  all 
the  earth  ?  "  All  nations  "  were  included  in  the  Prom- 
ise. The  sacrifice,  it  is  true,  could  not  in  its  Mosaic 
arrangements  be  adapted  to  "  all  nations."  But  when 
the  sacrifice  should  be  perfected,^  why  could  not  then 
"all  nations"  make  public  profession  of  allegiance  to 
God,  in  every  land,  far  and  near,  to  the  very  ends  of  the 
earth,  by  keeping  the  Sabbath,  the  pervasive,  non-ritual, 
personal  covenant  Sabbath  ? 

s.  ].;  also  note  to  Study  VI.,  page  133)  of  two  parts,  the  expiation 
by  the  death  of  the  victim  and  the  social  meal  in  which  all  partook 
of  that  which  was  "offered"  by  their  chief.  Some  of  the  Aaronie 
sacrifices  could  not  be  shared  by  the  people,  just  as  some  of  our 
Lord's  experiences  are  beyond  us.  But  the  typical  saci'ifice  for 
atonement  and  for  praise  was  so  shared.  When  the  antitype  of  all 
sacrifice  was  offered  in  the  person  of  our  Lord,  the  sacrificial  meal 
was  continued  by  his  special  enactment.  "This  is  my  body" 
(Matt.  xxvi.  26;  Mark  xiv.  22;  Luke  xxii.  19;  1  Cor.  xi.  24). 
Thus  the  restriction  was  eliminated  from  the  sacrifice,  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  became  associated  with  the  Lord's  Day  very  much  as  the 
old  sacrifice  may  have  been  a  feature  of  the  sacred  day  of  the  ages 
before  ]\Ioses. 

^  See  Study  V.,  pp.  115,  seq.  "No  prescribed  rites  or  forms  of 
worship.''     Xothing  was  explicitly  prescribed  by  statute. 

2  See  Study  VL,  pp.  154,  155,  sacrifice  perfected.  Also  note  , 
page  15^. 


160       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

But  under  the  Mosaic  legislation  such  an  universal 
observance  of  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  was  impossible.  The 
regulations'^  for  the  weekly  Sabbath  could  not  be  enforced 
in  all  lands  or  under  all  types  of  civilization.  The  in- 
junction against  lighting  a  fire,  even  for  the  purpose  of 
preparing  food,  could  have  been  intended  only  for  a  land 
where  neither  comfort  nor  health  would  be  endangered 
by  it,  and  where  fruit  and  other  uncooked  food  made  a 
large  part  of  the  people's  meals.  It  would  be  utterly 
preposterous  to  think  of  applying  these  regulations  to  the 
complex  interdependence  of  a  nineteenth  century  com- 
monwealth. It  is  of  no  consequence  if  it  could  be  con- 
■  ceived  that  here  and  there  a  single  family  observed  this 
law,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether  in  our  busy  cities  one 
family,  either  Christian  or  Hebrew,  does  observe  it.  The 
Mosaic  Sabbath  was  to  be  observed  by  the  community, 
and  enforced  by  the  authority  of  the  community  on  every 
individual.  It  could  not  have  been  intended  for  commu- 
nities like  ours.  It  was  adapted  only  to  the  farming 
villages  of  Israel.  Some  part  of  its  flavor  must  be  lost 
in  passing  even  to  their  nearest  neighbors.  There  were 
the  pastoral  tribes  behind  them  on  the  east.  It  would 
scarcely  touch  the  lives  of  Ishmaelites  or  Midianites  at 
all.  There  were  the  trading  Sidonians  at  their  elbows 
on  the  northwest,  and  the  artisan  Philistines  face  to 
face  with  them  on  the  west.  But  the  social  joy  and 
privilege  of  these  men,  if  they  should  adopt  the  Sabbath, 
could  never  be  so  great  in  it,  because  they  were  not,  like 
the  farmers  of  Israel,  alone  each  man  in  his  fiekls  during 
the  rest  of  the  week.  Even  in  Israel's  own  territory  it 
did  not  work  evenly.  The-  pastoral  tribes  across  the 
Jordan  had  slight  experience  of  it.     The  routine  of  their 

1  "  Regulations,"  see  Ex.  xvi,  22-30.  Verse  29,  "  Let  no  man  go 
out  of"  his  place."  "  Kindle  no  fire,"  Ex.  xxxv.  3.  Death  penalty, 
Ex.  xxxv.  2;  Num.  xv.  32-3G. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     101 

lives  could  have  varied  very  little  when  the  Sabbath 
came  round.  The  day  with  them  must  have  been  even 
more  colorless  than  with  the  patriarchs.  For  the  pastoral 
Israelites  had  no  sacrifice  and  no  sacrificial  feast  such  as 
emphasized  the  patriarchal  day. 

But  beyond  all  this  stands  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath 
was,  by  the  Mosaic  legislation,  made  part  of  its  sabbatic 
system,  and  that  system  was  not  extensible  ^  beyond  Is- 
rael's own  land.  Thus,  while  the  ideal  of  the  Sabbath 
involved  universal  extension,  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  was 
Hebrew  law,  Palestine  law,  farm  law.  It  had  wings  for 
widest  flight,  but  it  was  caged. 

II.  The  riddle  of  social  administration.^  Israel  was 
taught  by  the  sabbatic  system  to  contrast  the  ordinary 
administration  of  society  with  the  administration  of  prin- 
ciples ordained  by  God.  The  administration  of  these  di- 
vinely ordained  social  principles  was  extended  over  a 
whole  year,  in  order  that  their  influence  might  become 
thoroughly  perceptible.  Then  the  year  for  this  peculiar 
social  administration  was  made  the  seventh,  and  thus 
linked  to  the  weekly  Sabbath,  in  order  that  its  teaching 
might  become  a  part  of  the  Sabbath  idea  which  was  to 
be  developed.  Thus  was  afforded  a  glimpse  of  society 
ruled  and  permeated  by  benevolence.  But  just  as  surely 
as  the  Israelite  became  able  to  think  of  this  ideal,  he 
must  see  tliat  it  was  not  finished.  These  principles  were 
not  carried  out  to  their  full  results.  The  statute  was  not 
consistent  with  its  fundamental  principles  or  adequate  to 
their  scope.  It  presented  them  in  illustrations.  It  did 
not  attempt  to  work  them  out  through  the  whole  national 
life.  It  was  impossible,  indeed,  to  go  further,  under  the 
circumstances,  than  the  law  went,  for  no  administrative 
statute  could  be  framed  which  would  apply  infallible  jus- 

^  "  Th.at  system  not  extensible."     As  shown  in  the  previous  Study. 
2  "  Social  administration."     See  Study  VI.  pp.  136,  seq. 
»  11 


162        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

tice  and  benevolence  to  every  case.  Tlius  it  is  possible 
that  tlie  jubilee  restoration  of  land  might,  once  in  a  while, 
bring  some  worthy  family  down  from  a  very  prominent 
to  a  very  humble  position  among  the  villagers,  and  corre- 
spondingly exalt  some  one  of  little  worth.  The  release 
of  debt  might  at  some  time  profit  a  knave,  and  sorel}'  dis- 
tress one  who  had  shown  him  charity.  Some  slave  might 
be  set  free  to  be  a  nuisance  to  the  whole  neighborhood 
nntil  his  necessities  drove  him  back  to  disciplinary  bond- 
age. The  general  benevolence  of  the  law  was  perfectly 
manifest ;  but  evil-minded  men  might  now  and  then  turn 
even  its  benevolence  into  injur3^  It  could  force  men  to 
a  course  of  conduct  whose  general  character  was  admira- 
ble, but  it  could  not  make  every  man  practice  that  con- 
duct from  the  heart.  Therefore,  in  practical  life,  dis- 
crepancies must  now  and  then  occur. 

Moreover,  these  social  principles  did  not  work  equally 
among  all  citizens  and  in  every  part  of  the  land.  Es- 
tates were  restored  only  in  farm  lands  and  unwalled  vil- 
lages. Were  the  palaces  of  their  princes  to  be  excluded 
from  the  ordinances  of  God's  special  administration?  Only 
farm  work  ceased  on  the  seventh  year.  Were  the  suc- 
cessors of  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  upon  whom  God  poured 
his  Spirit  in  the  wilderness,  because  they  were  artisans, 
to  have  no  interest  in  the  year  long  Sabbath  ? 

Moreover,  we  can  feel,  if  the  Israelite  could  not,  that 
the  legislation  came  far  short  of  its  ideal  of  human  dig- 
nity. It  did,  indeed,  lift  Israel  to  a  pinnacle  in  social 
privilege  above  other  ancient  nations.  It  is  difficult  for 
us  to  conceive  how  hard  life  was  to  most  men  in  that  day. 
We  may  take  all  the  several  harshnesses  that  we  think  of 
as  attaching  to  the  lot  of  a  Russian  monjik,  an  Indian  ryot, 
or  a  Chinese  coolie,  and  add  them  together,  and  they 
will  not  equal  the  harshness  of  life  to  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  ancient  Assyria  or  Egypt.     And  this  when  \\q 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRA^' STENT.     163 

do  not  take  into  account  tlie  awful  abyss  of  slavery  whicli 
yawned  beside  every  man's  daily  pathway,  ready  to  en- 
gulf not  only  his  own  unwary  feet,  but  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren with  him.  By  contrast,  Israel  was  exalted  heaven 
high.  That  dread  abyss  did  indeed  yawn  all  over  his 
land,  but  it  was  not  so  deep.  Beside  there  were  ladders 
and  pathways  by  which  every  man  and  woman  and  child 
might  escape  it.  Israel  might  or  might  not  think  that 
anything  further  was  necessar3^  But  we  must  ask  why, 
since  it  was  so  plain  that  God's  special  time  of  interven- 
tion abhorred  slavery,  abhorred  uncharitableness,  ab- 
horred every  custom  and  incident  which  degraded  man- 
hood and  vitiated  self-respect,  why  was  this  rule  extended 
over  a  year  or  two  only  out  of  every  seven  ?  Why  was 
not  every  dishonor  to  manhood  abolished  for  all  time  ? 
Why  were  men  set  free  to  be  shackled  again,  lifted  up 
to  be  let  fall  again  ?  The  answer  is  indeed  read}- .  More 
than  this  was  as  yet  impossible.  For  it  was  an  essential 
part  of  the  sj^stem  that  the  two  s'orts  of  social  administra- 
tion should  be  set  in  contrast.  By  contrast  alone  could 
the  character  of  each  be  realized.  The  time  must  come 
when  men  shall  feel  it  their  duty  to  try  not  only  to  al- 
leviate, but  also  to  remove  and  to  prevent,  the  shame  of 
their  brethren.^  But  not  in  Moses'  time.  The  Mosaic 
statute,  in  order  to  accomplish  its  work,  necessarily  lim- 
ited itself.  But  the  thought  of  God  which  was  the  liv- 
ing germ  in  it,  when,  by  means  of  contrast  with  the  com- 
mon thought  of  man  concerning  what  we  now  call  ethics, 
this  divine  thought  or  germ  had  grown  up  in  human  con- 
sciousness to  be  a  distinct,  permanent,  active  factor  in 
man's  thinking,  must  then  develop  its  essential  hostility 

*  The  direct  lessons  of  punishment  were  not  yet  ended.  Wrath, 
even  to  extermination,  was  appointed  against  some  of  the  abomina- 
ble barbarians  of  Canaan,  and  Israel  was  commissioned  to  be  the  ex- 
ecutioner, and  then  to  possess  the  goods  of  the  dead  criminals. 


164      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

to  the  old  common  human  thought,  and  chiira  for  itself 
exclusive  control  over  human  conduct.  So  far  as  the 
mind  can  now  conceive,  and  so  far  as  history  explains 
human  nature,  men  could  learn  what  was  God's  thought 
by  seeing  it  in  contrast  with  the  ordinary,  and  in  no  other 
way.  The  Mosaic  dispensation  provided  such  a  contrast. 
But  these  two  thoughts,  or  these  two  principles  of  social 
administration,  are  mutually  inconsistent.  A  man  who 
loves  God,  when  he  learns  what  God's  thought  or  princi- 
ple is,  and  understands  it,  will  abhor  its  opposite.  If 
the  nation  had  been  faithful,  and  had  thus  learned  God's 
thought,  then,  with  love  and  loyalty  to  God  in  its  heart, 
it  would  have  abhorred  such  a  condition  of  society  as  was 
opposed  to  and  contrasted  with  God's  thought.  Chris- 
tians now  have  this  feeling,  not  indeed  exclusively,  but 
clearly  and  dominantly.  We  do  abhor  —  all  believers, 
without  exception,  but  in  varying  intensity,  do  abhor  — 
a  condition  of  society  where  justice  is  not  combined  with 
mercy  and  enterprise  with  benevolence,  personal  upright- 
ness with  active  sympathy,  and  where  the  common  broth- 
erhood of  man  is  not  recognized  along  with  the  authority 
of  God,  the  common  Father.  To  us,  the  social  atmos- 
phere of  states  Avithout  Christianity  is  everywhere  now 
repulsive;  and  that  of  ancient  heathen  states  would  have 
been  utterly  loathsome.  The  reason  is  simply  that  we 
have  been  taught  the  better  and  nobler ;  the  divine 
thought,  and  its  existence  in  us,  is  aversion  to  the  other. 
This  was  Israel's  lesson.  He  should  have  learned  it.  If 
he  had  learned  it,  he  would  have  come  to  feel  that  the 
continuance  of  the  two  administrations  side  by  side  was 
impossible.  He  could  not  have  imagined  how  the  change 
should  be  made;  but  as  surely  as  God  maintains  his  truth 
through  the  ages,  Israel  would  have  come  to  long  for  the 
perfect  reign  of  the  social  principles  derived  from  God, 
and  to  look  for  the  change  which  would  inaugurate  their 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.    165 

supremac)^  over  eveiy  condition  and  occupation  of  men, 
over  every  foot  of  land  or  ripple  of  the  sea,  over  every 
day  and  liour  of  every  successive  year.  And  for  this 
end  the  letter  of  the  Mosaic  institutions  must  somewhere 
give  way  that  their  spirit  may  live  unconstrained. 

III.  The  riddle  of  sacred  times.  The  idea  of  a  sa- 
cred time  regularly  recurring  may  have  been  very  slowly 
brought  into  men's  consciousness.  But  it  is  certain  that 
long  before  ]\Ioses'  birth  such  an  idea  existed.  It  is  also 
certain  that  in  this  idea  the  sacred  time  was  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week.  The  sacredness,  however,  may  have 
been  very  vague,  perhaps  meaning  little  more  than  the 
sign  of  a  bond  between  God  and  man. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  distinct  perception  of  the  contents 
of  these  two  thoughts,  it  may  be  well  to  look  at  them 
separately. 

1st.  There  is  evidence,  both  from  Scripture  and  else- 
where, that  in  the  ante-Mosaic  age  the  last  of  seven  days 
was  regarded  as  in  some  sense  sacred.  In  the  Scripture 
we  have  (a)  the  statement  that  after  the  creation  God 
sanctified  the  seventh  day ;  (6)  the  record  of  sacred  days 
in  the  ark  narrative  ;  and  (c)  the  reference  to  the  Sab- 
bath by  Moses,  and  its  observance  by  Israel  before  the 
Decalogue  was  uttered.  Outside  of  Scripture  a  great  va- 
riety of  historical  testimony  proves  that  even  among  idol- 
aters there  was  an  extensive  tradition  of  a  sacredness  in 
some  sense  pertaining  to  the  last  of  seven  days. 

2d.  The  sacredness  attributed  to  this  day  must  be 
stripped  of  all  but  its  simplest  elements,  as  must,  indeed, 
all  ideas  attributed  to  the  primeval  age.  Truth  is,  of 
course,  the  same  in  all  ages,  and  all  special  truths  likewise. 
But  men  very  slowly  learn  to  present  before  their  minds 
ideas  or  abstract  conceptions  of  truth.  They  act  accord- 
ing to  truths  which  they  do  not  think  of,  and  could  not 
understand.     Thus  a  child  who  has  never  studied  arith- 


1G6      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

metic  muy  practice  in  his  piny,  unconsciously,  a  variety 
of  arithmetical  processes.  He  may  add,  subtract,  multi- 
ply, and  divide.  Yet  that  child  will  learn  to  understand 
these  processes  and  to  make  them  his  tools,  for  the  re- 
sponsible work  of  maturity,  only  by  protracted  and  labo- 
rious study.  Thus  the  primeval  sacred  day  served,  as  we 
have  seen,  for  the  exercise  of  various  religious  emotions. 
But  though  men  truly  felt  these  things  it  does  not  follow 
that  they  thought  about  them,  or  would  have  understood 
if  some  one  had  spoken  of  them.  Cannot  a  baby  love 
before  it  learns  to  say  "  I  love?  "  The  learning  to  ex- 
press what  the  soul  feels  is  the  hardest  and  the  longest 
study  pursued  by  man.  So  in  the  earliest  days  men  felt 
divine  love  and  human  fellowship  in  faith  and  gratitude, 
and  the  hope  of  an  Advent  and  of  an  overthrow  of  evil. 
We  think  of  all  this  and  call  it  heaven.  The  Christian 
child  of  our  day  possesses  a  throng  of  authorized  and  re- 
vealed ideas  concerning  the  blessed  future.  But  when 
Enoch  "  walked  with  God  "  in  exalted  and  blissful  play 
of  holy  emotion,  and  when  he  preached  of  his  coming  in 
judgment,  did  his  thoughts  busy  themselves  at  all  with 
heaven  ?  What  a  less  than  childish  must  have  been  then 
his  conception  of  it  ?  Suppose  an  archangel  could  have 
shown  him  what  John  has  described  in  the  seventh, 
twenty-first,  and  twenty-second  chapters  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse,—  the  kingdom,  the  city,  the  bride,  the  martyrs, 
the  sealed  ones,  the  redeemed  host,  the  songs,  the  rain- 
bow, the  elders,  and,  above  all,  the  Lamb  !  Needless  to 
say  that  these  things  would  be  as  incomprehensible  to 
him  as  the  working  of  steam  and  electricity. 

Besides  it  is  possible  that  in  the  earliest  age  there  was 
something  to  unlearn  as  well  as  much  to  learn.  It  has 
been  renuirked  that  the  first  lesson  set  before  man  in  the 
broad  page  of  history  was  punishment.  The  separation 
from  God  was  a  hard  lesson.     It  seems  likely  that  it  was 


TtlE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     107 

not  till  after  the  catastrophe  at  Babel  that  men  accepted 
the  fact  that  they  must  propitiate  God.^  Not  only  the 
inspired  story,  but  all  ethnic  tradition  as  well,  breathes 
of  an  original  familiarity  between  the  Creator  and  his 
created  image.  It  must  have  been  handed  down  with 
peculiar  emphasis,  in  order  to  make  so  very  durable  an 
impression  on  the  mass  of  common  human  ideas.  Man 
had,  therefore,  to  learn  that  the  approach  to  the  presence 
of  God  was,  for  sinners,  a  privilege ;  and,  except  as  God 
graciously  provided,  an  unattainable  privilege.  Thus 
Cain  seems  to  have  no  sense  that  bis  bloody  hands  ought 
to  debar  him  from  that  Presence,  but  cries  out,  appar- 
ently, against  his  exclusion  as  an  undeserved  and  per- 
haps an  unintended  addition  to  his  punishment. 
He  could  not  have  been  hurt  by  any  spiritual 
experience  of  the  aversion  of  God's  face  from  his  soul. 
An  apostate  could  have  no  such  experience.  If  he  had 
ever  had  the  spiritual  vision  of  God,  he  would  have  been 
a  child  of  God,  and  his  sin,  like  David's,  would  have 
brought  him  back  humbled  and  repentant  to  his  Father's 
feet  begging  forgiveness.  If  he  was  the  malefactor  he  has 
been  deemed  by  all  the  ages,  it  does  not  seem  possible 
that  he  could  have  referred  to  anything  else  than  the  aw- 
ful symbols  or  beings  at  the  gate  of  Eden  as  God's  face. 
He  could  then  have  little  association  of  sacredness  with 
that  spot.  Sacred,  as  used  in  these  pages,  has  been  de- 
fined "  relating  to  the  bond  between  God  and  men."  But 
there  could  be  no  conception  of  this  bond  until  there  was 
some  perception  of  the  separation  which  made  occasion 
for  such  a  bond.  Currents  of  liquid  mixing  freely  need 
no  bond.  Beings  who  are  consciously  apart,  and  no 
others,  can  perceive  the  bond  which  unites  them. 

^  This  seems  to  have  been  the  meaning  of  Cain's  sacrifice.  The 
heathen  have  never  got  beyond  this  idea,  to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  obe- 
dience and  devotion. 


168      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Now,  it  is  no  business  of  onrs  to  ask  wlietlier  the  sev- 
enth day  would  have  been  kept,  and  for  what  end,  if  man 
had  not  fallen.  We  can  plainly  see,  and  it  is  all  that 
coucerns  this  Study,  how  fallen  man  needed  to  perceive 
two  things.  First,  the  fact  that  he  was  cut  off,  separated, 
radically  repelled,  by  God,  his  maker ;  and  second,  that 
certain  things  w^ere  signs  of  his  maker's  surviving  re- 
gard. Every  word  concerning  the  gateway  of  Eden  sug- 
gests repulsion.  Man  was  "  driven "  out  and  a  flaming 
sword  was  brandished  after  him.  Yet  he  found  an  at- 
traction somehow  or  at  some  times  in  the  presence  of 
that  terror,  and  clung  to  it.  At  what  times,  then,  might 
man  approach  this  Presence  ?  The  record  says,  "  in  proc- 
ess of  time,"  or,  as  in  the  margin,  "  after  days."  This 
"  time,"  or  "  day,"  was  either  stated  and  regular  or  ir- 
regular and  optional  with  man,  which  latter  alternative 
is  contrary  to  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture.  But  the 
family  of  Adam  knew  that  God  had  sanctified  the  sev- 
enth day ;  for  the  story  of  Genesis  i.  must  have  been 
handed  down  from  them.  And  thei*e  we  find  his  descend- 
ants in  the  tenth  generation,  born  before  the  flood  had 
carried  away  the  barriers  of  Eden,  noting  and  enjoying 
that  seventh  day  which  God  had  blessed  at  the  first. 
Now,  something  possessing  irresistible  impressiv^ness, 
and  not  a  slightly  or  moderately  striking  circumstance, 
must  have  served  to  keep  worshipers  in  mind  of  the  true 
count  of  the  sacred  days  during  the  fifteen  hundred  years 
before  the  ark.  For  the  effect  produced,  not  only  in 
preserving  the  tale  of  these  days  down  to  the  flood,  but 
also  in  establishing  a  tradition  which  endured  for  a  thou- 
sand years  after  the  flood,  spreading  like  a  circling  ripple 
on  a  lake  bosom,  so  that  a  trace  at  least  of  its  undulation 
can  be  found  among  the  furthest  and  darkest  nooks  of 
heathenism,  —  for  this  great  effect  which  was  produced, 
it  would  not  be  too  great  a  producing  cause  if  we  believe 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     169 

tlint,  clowji  to  the  flood,  access  to  tluit  Presence  where 
the  cherubim  stood  was  permitted  only  on  the  sacred  sev- 
enth day. 

It  cannot  be  positively  asserted  that  all  this  is  true. 
But  wdiether  true  or  not,  does  it  not  represent  the  utmost 
that  can  be  thought  of  as  originally  shaping  the  idea  of 
sacredness  in  connection  with  that  day?  If  this  was  not 
the  fact,  then  the  fact  was  something  less  potent  and  im- 
pressive, though  sufficient  for  its  purpose.  The  utmost, 
therefore,  which,  before  Moses'  day,  could  have  consti- 
tuted man's  idea  of  sacredness,  specially  as  applied  to 
time,  was  this,  namely:  that  on  certain  days  God's  re- 
pulsion toward  him  was  so  far  modified  as  to  permit  the 
manifestation  of  certain  outward  signs  of  his  regard,  and 
thus  men  could  address  Him,  or  await  such  manifesta- 
tions from  Him,  with  a  certain  sense  of  privilege  on  these 
days. 

After  the  flood,  whatever  local  or  visible  manifestation 
from  God  was  associated  with  the  day  ceased.  But  the 
fellowship  of  the  sacrificial  feasts  and  the  interest  of  the 
rehearsal  of  sacred  tradition  may  well  have  become  estab- 
lished as  its  outward  features.  Then,  as  time  went  on,  it 
would  be  but  natural  if  the  idea  of  sacredness  should  cen- 
tre rather  in  the  sacrifice  and  the  story  than  in  the  day,  so 
that  men  should  think  the  day  sacred,  if  saci'ed  at  all,  be- 
cause the  sacrifice  took  place  on  it,^  —  rather  tlian  regard 
the  sacrifice  as  peculiarly  appropriate  to  men,  peculiarly 
acceptable  to  God,  and  therefore  peculiarly  sacred,  signi- 
fying and  sealing  as  no  other  meal  could  do  a  bond  with 
God,  because  offered  and  eaten  on  this  day. 

^  Just  as  the  Lord's  Supper  is  more  appropriate  and  more  sacred 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  ordinarily.  Noah's  sacrifice  seems  to  liave  been 
offered  on  the  day  of  leaving  the  ark,  wliicli  was  a  sacred  day.  This 
is  the  only  occasion  when  a  sacrifice  on  the  sacred  day  is  recorded. 
But  it  is  enough,  for  the  whole  narrative  shows  such  patience  in  waiting 


170       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

But  when  the  tribe  of  Israel  was  reduced  to  bond- 
age in  Eg3^pt,  sacrifice  seems  to  have  been  interdicted. 
Moses  asked  permission  to  take  a  three  days'  journey  into 
the  desert  in  order  to  oflPer  it,  on  account  of  the  Egyp- 
tian prejudice.^  Thus,  for  a  century  at  least,  there  may 
Lave  been  absolutely  nothing  to  mark  the  sacred ness  of 
the  returning  sacred  day,  except  a  possible  gathering 
for  prayer  and  for  recital  of  old  narratives.  While  such 
gatherings  may  have  survived  here  and  there,  it  is 
scarcely  a  question  that  if  the  count  by  weeks  was  pre- 
served at  all,  it  was  barely  preserved.  The  account  in 
Exodus  xvi.  of  the  first  Sabbath  after  the  manna  fall  be- 
gan, implies  that  the  idea  of  a  sacred  seventh  day  was 
not  at  all  strange  to  the  people,  though  it  might  be 
known  only  as  one  of  their  ancestral  traditions.  Per- 
haps, also,  they  were  surprised  that  God  did  not  mark 
the  day  for  them  by  a  double  share  of  his  gift  rather 
than  by  withholding  it.  So  Moses  was  obliged  to  ex- 
plain this  new  feature.  What  was  done  on  previous 
Sabbaths  is  not  stated.  At  least  four  must  have  passed. 
If  the  manna  began  to  fall  on  the  day  of  starting  from 
Elim,  the  fifteenth  of  month  two,  then  the  host  may 
have  rested  at  Elim  on  the  fourteenth.  In  that  case  the 
first  Sabbath  may  have  been  spent  at  Pi  Hahirath,  on 
the  sixteenth  of  the  first  month.  And  each  seventh  day 
might  have  been  utilized  for  general  assemblies,  to  whom 
Moses  would  have  weighty  and  lengthened  instructions 
to  give. 

for  divine  authority  to  act,  and  such  explicit  obedience,  that  we  must 
believe  this  act,  also,  authorized.  Probably  every  reader  is  aware 
that  the  dynasty  under  whom  Joseph  flourished  were  foreign  con- 
querors of  E;4ypt,  barely  tolerant  of  the  national  polytliLUsui,  appar- 
ently inclined  to  the  worship  of  one  God.  These  so-called  shepherd 
kings  were  expelled  by  a  native  sovereign,  who  may  have  been  the 
great-grandfather  of  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus.  Any  commentary 
will  atibrd  an  account  of  all  this. 

1  Exodus  v.  1,  3,  compared  with  viii.  26. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     171 

In  all  this  provisional  sketch  the  effort  has  been  to  pre- 
sent every  circumstance  which  could  have  made  up  the 
sacredness  of  the  pre -Mosaic  sacred  day.  The  sketch 
may  or  may  not  be  accurate  ;  if  it  is  not  accurate,  it  must 
contain  too  much.  There  was  not  more  sacredness  per- 
ceived than  is  here  described.     There  may  have  been  less. 

Turning  now  to  the  Mosaic  legislation,  it  will  be  seen, 
first,  that  very  much  was  added  to  the  ideas  hitherto  ex- 
isting ;  and  tlien,  that  this  addition  was  itself  a  pi-oblem ; 
and  finally,  that,  since  it  differed  from  the  original  idea, 
and  contained  factors  incongruous  with  each  other,  there 
must  be  j^et  another  development  in  order  to  demonstrate 
the  underlying  harmony  of  all  the  earlier  arrangements, 
and  to  manifest  the  activity  of  the  gracious  Spirit  of  God 
superintending  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  bond  with 
men. 

Although  the  traditional  association  of  sacrifice  and 
sacred  time  could  not  have  been  forgotten,  the  desuetude 
of  sacrifice  had  lasted  long  enough  to  facilitate  its  com- 
plete separation  from  the  Sabbath.  The  day,  however, 
was  not  to  be  left  bare,  featureless,  and  devoid  of  inter- 
est. The  various  influences  allied  to  the  convocation,  to- 
gether with  the  leisure  enforced  by  the  state,  would  suf- 
fice to  mark  the  place  of  tlie  day  among  all  the  institu- 
tions of  society.  The  associated  sabbatic  times  were  so 
arranged  as  to  develop  and  illustrate  a  great  system  of 
ideas  concerning  the  promised  blessedness.  And  with 
all  this,  the  ordinal  of  time,  in  itself  insignificant,  and 
through  the  ages  past  attracting  only  incidental  attention, 

^  "  Incidental  attention."  In  several  passages  in  Genesis  the  num- 
ber seven  occurs  in  words  attributed  to  God  or  dreams  inspired  by 
Him,  but  Avith  a  very  faint  association  of  sacredness,  as  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Cain  (iv,  15),  and  Pharaoh's  dream  of  the  kine  and  ears  (xli- 
18-30).  Yet  the  preservation  of  these  numbers  shows  that  they  were 
impressed  deeply.  Lamech's  reference  to  Cain  (iv.  24)  is  still  stronger 
evidence  that  the  precise  number  mentioned  had  fixed  itself  in  men's 


172       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

was  made  tlie  index  of  so  much  repetition  and  redupli- 
cation that  attention  was  necessarily  fastened  upon  it, 
and  a  large  part  of  tlie  sacredness  increasingly  attributed 
to  the  Sabbath  was  unavoidably,  perhaps  intentionally, 
transferred  to  it.  Thus  sacred  time  came  to  mean  sev- 
enth time,  and  the  ideas  sacred  and  seventh  were  bound 
together,  so  that  whatever  time  was  numbered  by  sevens 
seemed  to  have  some  religious  significance,  and  whatever 
had  such  significance  seemed  to  fit  somehow  into  that 
number.  Not  only  in  the  law,  but  also  in  all  the  inspired 
writings  published  through  Israel,  this  general  statement 
is  iUustrated.  It  was  distinctl}'^  and  unmistakably  set 
forth  that  God's  time  in  dealing  with  men  under  his  cov- 
enant went  by  sevens.^ 

But  now  in  these  very  Mosaic  institutions  by  which 
such    intense  emphasis  was  put  upon  the   sacredness  of 

minds.  There  is  a  larger  sense  of  sacredness,  that  is,  a  larger  sense 
of  immediate  relation  to  God,  in  the  use  of  this  number  for  an  oath  by 
Abraham  and  Isaac  (xxi.  28-31;  xxvi.  26-33).  The  literal  meaning 
of  the  word  for  oath  is  the  sevenfold  word.  The  tliought  of  Abime- 
lech  and  his  friends  would  be  accurateb'^  represented  in  English 
thus :  "  Let  there  be  now  a  word  seven  times  repeated  betwixt  us." 
The  latent  premise  would  be  that  God  specially  noticed  the  number 
seven,  and  the  inference  that  He  would  be  specially  offended  at  the 
breach  of  a  sevenfold  promise. 

^  "  By  sevens."  It  is  certainly  unnecessary,  and  rather  savoring 
of  superstition,  to  attribute  religious  significance  to  every  mention  of 
seven  or  its  multiples.  For  instance,  the  notices  of  Ahab's  seventy 
sons  (2  Kings  x.  1)  ;  of  Ahasuerus'  seventh  year  (Eslh.  ii.  IG)  ;  of 
Athaliah's  (2  Kings  xi.  1)  ;  of  Jehu's  (2  Kings  xii.  1);  and  of  the 
seventh  of  the  captivity  (Ezek.  xx.  1);  of  the  seventy  sons  of  Gid- 
eon (Judges  viii.  30,  seq.)  ;  of  the  seventy  kings  mutilated  by  Adoni- 
bezek  (Judges  i.  7)  ;  of  the  seventy  bullocks  brought  forward  by 
various  persons  for  the  people's  thank-offering  under  Hezekiah  (2 
Chron.  xxix.  32);  of  Solomon's  seventy  thousand  porters  (1  Kings 
v.  15)  ;  and  of  his  seven  hundred  wives  (1  Kings  xi.  3)  ;  with  many 
others,  are  simply  statements  of  fact,  the  number  seven  in  them  hav- 
ing no  more  sacredness  than  six  or  eight  in  other  passages. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND  THE  TRANSIENT.     173 

sevens  in  time  reckoning,  there  was  embodied  a  strange 
paradox,  a  marked  incongruity,  elements  wliicli  seemed 
to  contradict  each  other's  significance,  the  riddle  of  sa- 
cred time.  This  riddle  was  twofold.  There  was,  first,  a 
seeming  inconsistency  in  the  succession  of  weeks;  and, 
second,  a  seeming  inconsistency  in  the  ordinal  of  the 
week's  peculiar  significance. 

The  steady,  solemn  march  of  the  weeks,  never  hasten- 
ing, never  tarrying,  regarding  neither  sun  nor  moon,  re- 
iterated the  unchanging  covenant  of  God  with  his  people. 
From  the  remotest  age  their  step  was  unbroken,  and 
now  in  this  age  of  special  instruction  God  had  made  them 
still  more  significant  of  his  authority  by  obliging  the 
people  to  count  the  years  as  well  as  the  days  by  them. 
And  then  when  all  this  was  so  strenuously  pressed  upon 
the  people,  an  anomalous  week  was  appointed  for  each  of 
the  seasons  of  special  religious  observance.  The  great 
spring  and  fall  festivals,  the  feast  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
and  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  lasted  each  for  one  week. 
But  instead  of  conforming  to  the  sacred  week,  —  the 
week  which  God  had  established  and  maintained  and  en- 
larged to  the  measure  of  years,  as  the  sjmibol  of  man's 
loyalty,  —  these  festivals  had  each  a  peculiar  week  of  its 
own.  They  followed  the  moons  ^  and  not  the  Sabbaths, 
—  the  ordinary  calendar  of  all  men,  and  not  the  special 
and  divinely  appointed  calendar  of  God's  loyal  people. 

But  the  solution  of  this  first  part  of  the  riddle  is  very 
clear  in  the  light  of  our  day,  and  might  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  older  age.  For  it  is  plain  that  this  was  a 
part  of  that  separation  between  the  sacrificial  and  sab- 
batic systems,  by  which  the  distinction  between  the 
means  and  the   end  of   the   promise  was  made  patent. 

^  *'  Followed  the  moons."  Each  began  with  the  full  moon,  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  first  and  seventh  months  resjiectively.  See  Lev. 
xxiii.  6,  30,  etc. 


174        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF    THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Passover  and  Tabernacles  were  perpetual  living  pictures 
of  redemption  and  providence,  of  the  escape  from  Egypt 
and  the  leading  through  the  wilderness,  of  the  blood 
which  stayed  judgment  and  of  the  bread  which  came 
down  from  heaven,  of  the  evil  leaven  wliich  grew  and 
spread  in  all  earthly  relations,  and  of  the  transient  enjoy- 
ment of  all  earthly  possessions.  Thus,  these  two  festi- 
vals belonged  to  that  great  and  complicated  ritual  by 
which  were  set  forth  the  atonement  for  sinful  men  and 
the  conditions  of  their  reconciliation  to  God.  They  do 
not,  therefore,  have  to  do  it  with  the  Sabbath  ideals  of 
life,  as  not  going  toivards,  but  m,  God's  kingdom.  More- 
over, as  spring  and  fall  festivals,  they  had  something  in 
common  with  the  heathen  all  over  the  world,  and  there- 
fore were  distinct  from  the  Sabbath,  the  like  of  which 
the  heathen  never  knew. 

But  the  second  part  of  the  riddle  belonged  to  the  Sab- 
bath system  alone.  It  turned  upon  the  plan  of  the 
week.  It  showed  on  the  one  side  a  week  ending  with 
the  sacred  day,  and  on  the  other  side  a  week  beginning 
with  the  sacred  day.  On  the  first  week  plan,  in  which 
the  seventh  was  the  chief,  was  laid  great  stress,  by  plac- 
ing beside  the  ordinary  week  the  week  of  months,  and 
the  week  of  years  each  with  its  seventh  peculiarl}'  sa- 
cred. On  the  second  week  plan  even  greater  emphasis 
was  put,  by  making  its  first  day  the  point  of  greatest 
dignity  and  of  profoundest  significance,  the  climax  and 
crown  of  the  whole  system,  the  entrance  to  a  week 
whose  end  is  not  defined  in  relation  to  it,  and  the  suc- 
cessor of  a  completed  series  of  weeks  on  the  first  plan. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  just  comparison  of  these  diverse 
week  plans,  two  ])reliniinai'y  facts  must  be  stated.  One 
is  the  utter  insignificance  of  the  number  seven  as  a  num- 
ber merely.  Number  is  a  ratio,  that  is  a  form  of  com- 
parison.    It    is  certain   that,  with   many  persons  of   all 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE   TRANSIENT.     175 

ages,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  abstract  number. 
They  cannot  think  of  seven  or  of  seventy  without  think- 
ing of  seven  or  seventy  things  of  some  sort.  Children 
always  begin  thus.  But  there  is  nothing  in  nature  and 
there  is  nothing  in  the  Bible  to  suggest  that  seven  has 
any  sacredness  of  its  own.  Three,  five,  ten,  twelve,  and 
other  numbers  might  claim  something  of  the  same  dis- 
tinction if  there  were  anything  in  it  but  a  superstition 
incapable  of  definition,  and  analytically  unthinkable.  If 
there  is  any  sacred  suggestion  in  seven,  it  is  not  at  all  in 
the  abstract  number  or  ratio,  but  in  the  siiG:o:estion  of 
certain  things  associated  with  that  number  or  ratio.^ 

The  other  fact  to  be  noticed  in  this  place,  as  already  in 
another  connection,  is  the  entire  newness  of  the  Mosaic 
system  of  sevens.  The  simple  seven  in  connection  with 
the  week  was  well  known.  Traces  of  it  are  found  the 
world  over.  But  the  system  of  sevens  was  not  heard  of 
before  Moses.  There  is  not  a  previous  hint  of  it  in  the 
Bible ;  there  is  not  a  previous  trace  of  it  in  history.  It 
was  an  innovation. 

In  this  new  system  there  was  a  remarkable  symmetry 
and  a  remarkable  progression.  All  the  three  natural 
units  of  time,  the  day,  the  month,  and  the  year  were 
grouped  in  sevens,  and  to  correspond  with  the  seventh 
day,  the  seventh  month,  and  the  seventh  year  was  made 
the  sacred  member  of  each  group.  Then  the  group  of 
seven  days  and  the  group  of  seven  years  were  each  car- 
ried to  its  quadrate,  a  week  of  weeks  of  days,  and  a 
week  of  weeks  of  years.  In  all  this  progression,  sevens 
by  sevens,  until  seven  times  seven  was  reached,  the 
seventh  of  every  group  was  sacred.^ 

^  There  may  be  a  traditional  sacredness  when  the  facts  originally 
suggested  are  lost.  It  then  becomes  superstitious.  Such  are  all 
heathen  traditions  concerning  seven  and  other  numbers. 

2  There  are  a  great  number  of  minor  correspondences  to  this  syni- 


176        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  effect  of  tins  symmetry  and  pro- 
gression of  sacred  sevenths  was  to  fix  attention  upon  that 
ordinal.  This  could  not  be  a  chance  effect.  Certainly 
the  God  of  Israel  must  have  designed  to  fix  the  people's 
attention  upon  the  seventh.  Certainly  He  must  have 
designed,  to  fix  in  their  minds  the  fact  that  their  Sabbath 
v^^as  not  merely  one  day  in  seven,  but  the  seventh  day  of 
the  seven. 

But  He  who  through  Moses  so  strongly  emphasized  and 
so  variously  illustrated  the  place  of  tlie  Sabbath  at  tlie 
end  of  the  week,  by  Moses  also  placed  a  gi^eater  Sabbath 
and  a  more  significant  day  at  the  week's  beginning.  In 
the  two  discrepant  weeks  already  noticed  their  seventh 
days  were  not  specially  prominent.  In  the  week  of  Un- 
leavened Bread,!  the  first  day  and  the  seventh  were 
equally  sacred,  and  each  a  Sabbath.  In  the  Tabernacle  ^ 
week  the  seventh  day  was  ignored.  Its  first  day  was  its 
Sabbath,  and  the  octave  of  that  day  was  made  another 
Sabbath  instead  of  the  seventh.  These  feasts,  it  is  true, 
formed  no  part  of  the  sabbatic  system.  Their  weeks 
were  not  members  of  the  week  series  of  the  ages.  But 
they  were  associated  with  the  grand  solemnities  which 
the  individuals  of  the  nation  celebrated,  as  also  they  in- 
dividually kept  the  Sabbath.  And  it  would  be  strange 
if  at  some  time  pious  worshipers  did  not  wonder  why 
these  so  solemn  weeks  should  not  only  be  separate  from 

metry  in  various  details  of  the  ritual  -which  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
sider in  this  treatise  and  which  are  not  necessary  to  its  argument. 

1  "Unleavened  bread."  See  Lev.  xxiii.  7,  8;  Num.  xxviii.  18, 
25.     Also  John  xix.  31,  "  That  Sabbath-day  was  an  high  day." 

2  «  Tabernacles."  See  Lev.  xxiii.  35,  36,  39;  Num.  xxix.  12,  35. 
Zeeh.  xiv.  19,  certainly  suggests  that  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  signi- 
fies something  larger  than  Judaism,  something  which  warrants  for  it 
—  spiritually,  if  not  literally  —  a  place  in  the  universal  Messianic 
kingdom.  Its  first  and  eighth  day  Sabbaths  are  in  harmony  with 
this. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE    TRANSIENT.     Ill 

the  -week  series,  but  also  have  a  different  sacred  day. 
And  why  in  one  of  these  peculiar  weeks  were  the  first 
and  seventh  days  made  of  equal  dignity,  while  in  the 
other  the  first  day  alone  was  sacred. 

These  circumstances  are  not  trifling  or  accidental. 
The  variations  were  introduced  for  a  purpose.  But  as 
they  do  not  wholly  belong  to  the  sabbatic  system,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  inquire  into  their  purpose.  They  would 
be  of  no  consequence  to  this  present  Study,  and  would  not 
have  been  mentioned,  except  as  they  correspond  with 
similar  variations  in  the  most  prominent  places  of  the 
system  itself.  These  occur  in  the  day  of  Pentecost  and 
the  year  of  Jubilee. 

The  three  annual  festivals  were  made  equally  binding 
on  Israel,  were  always  treated  with  equal  dignity  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  seem  to  have  held  always  an  equal  place 
in  popular  esteem.  But  the  second  was  specially  distin- 
guished from  the  first  and  last.  They  had  their  own  dis- 
tinctive proper  names.^     This  had  none.     They  were  the 

1  Passover  and  feast  of  Unleavened  Bread  were  both  proper 
names.  Unleavened  Bread  and  Tabernacles  were  pi'oper  names  of 
the  two  feasts.  These  names  were  descriptive,  appropriate,  author- 
ized, and  exclusive.  Pentecost  may  be  regarded  now  as  a  proper 
name  of  the  second  feast,  and  is  so  used  in  this  Study ;  but  when  it 
was  vernacular,  it  simply  meant  "fiftieth,"  and  might  be  applied  to 
any  fiftieth  day.  Sabbath  is  a  proper  name ;  so  are  Sunday,  Mon- 
day, etc.     But  first  day,  seventh  day,  etc.,  are  not  proper  names. 

In  Ex.  xxiii.  IG,  it  is  called  "  the  feast  of  harvest,  the  first-fruits  of 
thy  labors,  which  thou  hast  sown  in  thy  field,"  contrasted  with  the 
feast  of  ingathering,  etc.  This  is  a  description  not  of  the  feast  but 
of  the  season  in  which  it  occurred,  when  the  last  of  the  first-fruits 
were  being  gathered.  It  is  only  a  general  description.  The  statute 
first-fruits  were  offered  seven  weeks  before.  The  statute  harvest 
was  four  months  later.  There  was  no  interdict  on  gathering  any 
first-fruits  before  this  time.  But  before  the  Unleavened  Bread  began 
the  taking  of  a  single  stalk  or  berry  was  pi-ohibited.  Finally,  as  the 
phrase  "  feast  of  harvest,"  etc.,  is  not  used  again,  it  could  not  have 
12 


178      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

appointed  memorials  ^  of  very  grand  events  in  the  na- 
tion's history.  To  this  none  were  referred.  They  were 
solemnized    with    peculiar   restrictions. ^     Tq    this   none 

been  intended  for  a  name.  At  the  early  period  when  these  -words 
were  used,  only  general  statements  concerning  tlie  three  festivals 
■were  made. 

In  Num.  xxviii.  26,  it  is  described  as  a  day  of  first-fruits,  but  not 
the  day  when  the  very  _;?/'S<-fruits  were  offered,  — "  The  day  of  the 
first-fruits,  when  ye  bring  a  new  meat-offering  unto  the  Lord,  after 
your  weeks  be  out."  It  is  inaccurate  and  it  is  unwarranted  to  take 
a  few  words  out  of  these  long  descriptions,  for  names.  They  would 
be  pseudonyms.  In  Ex.  xxxiv.  22,  it  is  called  "  the  feast  of  weeks 
of  the  first-fruits  of  wheat  harvest,"  and  in  Deut.  xvi.  10,  the  "feast 
of  weeKs  "  simply.  "Weeks,"  like  "Pentecost"  or  "Fiftieth," 
could  not  be  taken  in  the  vernacular  for  a  proper  name.  It  is  com- 
mon and  convenient  for  Americans  to  speak  of  the  Fourth  of  July. 
The  proper  name  of  that  anniversary  is  Independence  Day. 

The  proper  names  of  men  and  things  sometimes  go  so  long  unused 
as  to  be  forgotten.  Indeed,  both  men  and  things  may  never  receive 
a  proper  name.     A  description  or  a  title  is  a  different  thing. 

1  "  ]\Iemorials."  Of  deliverance  out  of  the  destruction  of  all  first- 
born in  Egypt,  see  Ex.  xii.  25-27.  The  name  Feast  of  the  Passover 
often  stood  for  both  the  Passover  proper  and  the  seven  days  suc- 
ceeding, as  Deut.  xvi.  i.  But  "  the  days  of  unleavened  bread  "  cele- 
brated especially  the  escape  from  Egypt,  as  see  Deut.  xvi.  3.  The 
death  of  the  first-born  was  really  the  release  of  the  Israelites  and 
the  beginning  of  the  Exodus.  Thus  there  was  no  error  in  speaking 
of  the  Passover  and  the  Unleavened  Bread  as  practically  one  observ- 
ance, celebrating  one  event,  although  in  it,  nevertheless,  the  sacri- 
fice might  be  distinguished  from  the  feast,  as  in  Num.  xxviii.  16,  17. 
Compare  verse  16  with  Ex.  xii.  27.  Of  God's  watch  and  care  in 
the  wilderness.     Lev.  xxiii.  43. 

2  "  Restrictions."  In  the  one  case  from  ordinary  food,  and  in  the 
other  from  ordinary  habitations.  At  Pentecost  leavened  broad  was 
offered.  It  was  not,  of  course,  burned  on  the  altar,  but  solemnly 
waved  before  it  and  then  given  to  the  priests.      Lev.  xxiii.  17,  20. 

In  Deut.  xvi.  11,  14,  Pentecost  and  Tabernacles  are  each  the  oc- 
casion for  an  exhortation  to  unbounded  hospitality.  As  the  enter- 
tainment which  might  be  spread  over  seven  days  at  Tabernacles  was 
concentrated  into  one  day  at  Pentecost,  this  latter  would  probably 
call  out  the  most  extensive  feast  which  could  be  provided.     Doubt- 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.     179 

such  were  applied.  It  was  described  by  a  reference  to 
the  time  of  its  celebration.  It  was  enacted  arbitrarily 
by  the  divine  prerogative,  without  the  assignment  of  any 
reason  or  occasion  for  its  institution.  At  it  no  one  was 
restrained  from  his  ordinary  habitation,^  as  during  the 
Tabernacles;  or  from  his  ordinary  food,  as  during  the 
week  of  unleavened  bread  following  the  Passover.  Its 
contrast  with  the  latter  was  very  strongly  marked  by 
the  presentation  of  leavened  loaves  to  be  waved  before 
the  Lord  with  the  sacrificial  lambs  ^  of  the  peace-offering. 
The  peculiar  liberty  of  the  midsummer  festival  was  made 
still  more  prominent  by  comparison  with  the  weekly 
Sabbath.  For  the  weekly  Sabbath  presented  the  type 
of  all  the  restrictions  of  the  law.  It  barred  the  people 
from  the  whole  round  of  their  ordinary  occupations.  It 
forbade  alike  hand-work  and  hearth-fire.  That  another 
so  difi'erent  Sabbath  should  immediately  follow  it  served 
and  must  have  been  intended  to  call  attention  to  the  dif- 
ference. In  two  particulars  they  were  alike.  On  both 
days  the  great  national  industry  of  agriculture  was 
wholly  suspended.  On  both  days  a  convocation  was 
held  Avith  all  its  various  exercises  and  adjuncts.  But  on 
the  feast  day  the  restraint  of  the  Sabbath  was  dissolved. 
Any  work  appropriate  and  useful  for  the  ends  of  the  day 
was   lawful.     Especially  lawful,   and    indeed   especially 

less  the  cooking  would  be  done  in  the  city,  and  thus  greater  conven- 
ience be  afforded.  Note  that  only  "servile  work,"  or  farm  work, 
was  prohibited  at  Pentecost. 

^  "  Habitation  "  and  "  food."  See  Lev.  xxiii.  17.  It  is  notice- 
able, at  least,  though  not  necessary  to  our  argument,  that  the  leav- 
ened loaves  are  prescribed  as  an  offering  from  the  homes  of  the  land. 
The  word  in  the  Hebrew  is  Moshab,  meaning  permanent  dwelling,  the 
opposite  of  a  temporary  abode,  such  as  the  booths.  It  is  difficult  to 
avoid  the  thought  that  it  was  used  in  part  to  heighten  this  contrast. 

2  "  The  sacrificial  lambs,"  Lev.  xxiii.  19,  20.  These  were  the  peace- 
offering,  and,  with  the  bread,  went  to  the  priest's  support,  Lev.  iii. 


180       EIGHT  STUDIES    OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

prescribed,  was  the  preparation  of  a  hospitable  meal. 
Hospitality  was  equally  enjoined  for  the  autumn  festival. 
But  since  the  entertainment  which,  at  that  season,  con- 
tinued for  a  week,  was  on  this  occasion  concentrated  into 
one  day,  it  is  probable  that  the  feast  provided  would  on 
this  day  be  as  abundant  as  each  family  could  afford.  In 
any  case,  while  the  one  day  would  be  filled  with  calm 
refreshment,  instructions,  and    promises,  the  next  day  ^ 

1  "  The  next  day."  I  have  assumed  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  Pen- 
tecost was  appointed  to  succeed  a  weekly  Sabbath.  If  that  were 
not  true,  then  the  contrast  with  the  weekly  Sabbath  would  be  less 
evident,  because  the  two  would  only  occasionally  occur  together. 

In  regard  to  this  question  the  practice  of  the  Jews  in  our  Lord's 
time  is  not  conclusive  evidence,  though  valuable.  But  it  seems  that 
they  had  fallen  into  some  uncertainty  about  it,  and  it  is  said  that 
the  custom  of  observing  a  whole  week  instead  of  one  day  was  due  to 
this  uncertainty.  The  nation  had  neglected  the  accurate  observance 
of  the  sabbatic  system,  and  had  failed  to  learn  the  meaning  of  its 
parts. 

The  question  turns  on  the  words  of  Lev.  xxiii.  11,  "  the  morrow 
after  the  Sabbath."  Did  "the  Sabbath"  here  mean  the  weekly 
Sabbath,  occurring  during  the  seven  days  of  unleavened  bread?  Or 
did  it  mean  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  which  was  a  day  of 
convocation  and  of  rest  from  farm  work,  and  called  in  our  version  a 
Sabbath,  though  in  Hebrew  a  slightly  different  word  is  used,  "  Sab- 
bathon." 

The  assumption  that  the  latter  is  the  fact  is  without  any  scriptu- 
ral support.     There  is  not  one  word  in  its  favor  in  the  Bible. 

It  is  directly  contradicted  by  the  use  of  the  word  Sabbath,  which 
is  never  applied  to  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread.  This  is  not 
accidental;  for  in  this  very  chapter  the  discrimination  between  the 
two  words  Sabbath  and  Sabbathon  is  carefully  maintained.  Here, 
indeed,  as  elsewhere,  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  is  called  some- 
times Sabbath  Sabbathon,  or  "Sabbath  of  rest"  (A.  V.),  as  well 
as  Sabbath.  (Ex.  xxxi.  15;  xxxv.  2;  Lev.  xxiii.  3.  The  same 
words  trans])osed,  Ex.  xv.  23.)  But  it  is  not  called  "  Sabbathon," 
nor  are  any  of  the  other  days  of  convocation  called  Sabbaths,  except 
the  Day  of  Atonement.  Thus  in  Lev.  xxiii.  24,  the  feast  of  Trumpets 
is  called  "  Sabbathon."  Again  in  verse  39  the  first  and  eighth  days 
of  Tabernacles  are  each  called  a  Sabbathon.     But  in  verse  32  (Lev. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE    TRANSIENT.     181 

would  bring  no  less  refreshment  and  promise  with  the 
addition  of  positive  material  enjoyment.     JNIoreover,  the 

xvi.  31 ;  xxiii.  32)  the  Day  of  Atonement  is  called  Sabbath  and  Sab- 
bath Sabbathon,  and  the  reason  for  using  these  names  is  given  in 
verses  27-32.  The  Day  of  Atonement  was  to  be  kept  precisely  like 
the  seventh  day  of  the  week.  (In  Lev.  xxv.  4,  the  seventh  year  is 
called  "a  Sabbath  of  rest  unto  the  land.^'  Not  as  in  the  other 
cases  "unto  you."  The  distinction  is  plain  enough.)  The  other 
days,  namely,  the  first  and  seventh  of  unleavened  bread,  the  feast  of 
Weeks,  the  feast  of  Trumpets,  and  the  first  and  eighth  of  Taber- 
nacles, were  not  to  be  so  kept.  Therefore  they  were  not  so  called. 
They  are  Sabbathons.  The  assumption  that  Sabbath  in  verses  11  and 
15  means  Sabbathon  is  one  that  no  reasonable  student  of  Scripture 
ought  to  tolerate  for  a  moment.  If  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews  in 
our  Lord's  time  thought  differently,  that  fact  would  not  cancel  or 
contradict  a  plain  statement  of  the  written  Word.  They  had  dis- 
obeyed their  law  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  their  later  usages  are 
in  no  point  whatever  to  be  taken  as  explanations  of  their  law  with- 
out more  or  less  reserve.  As  to  tlie  sabbatic  system  of  their  law, 
they  had  completely  gone  astray.  Their  eyes  were  blinded  to  the 
meaning  of  the  Sabbath  day,  and  more  than  in  any  other  part  of 
their  institutions  were  their  conceptions  about  it,  both  i-itual  and 
spiritual,  incorrect. 

But  there  is  no  proof  that  they  did  not  understand  this  passage 
properly.  The  most  that  can  be  asserted  is  that  a  doubt  or  question 
may  have  existed  among  them.  The  possibility,  or  even  the  cer- 
tainty, that  there  was  some  doubt  among  these  later  Jews  should  not 
affect  our  reception  of  a  clear  biblical  statement.  We  can  under- 
stand the  bearing  and  signification  of  all  parts  of  their  system  as 
they  did  not  and  could  not.  One  more  consideration  will  suffice  for 
argument. 

In  Leviticus  xxiii.  15  it  is  said  that  from  "the  morrow  after  the 
Sabbath  .  .  .  seven  Sabbaths  shall  be  complete,"  "  sheba,  sab- 
bathoth  tmimoth."  This  word,  tmimoth,  is  well  rendered  by  our 
word  complete.  It  expresses  not  merely  external  completion  of  the 
specified  time,  but  also  complete  observance.  {Perfectce  atque  inie- 
gne.) 

If,  then,  "  the  morrow  after  the  Sabbath  "  is  supposed  to  mean 
*'  the  morrow  after  the  Sabbathon,"  of  course  the  "  seven  Sab- 
baths "  to  be  completed  must  be  seven  weeks.  That  is,  we  must 
understand  that  Sabbath  here  is  put  for  week,  "  Sliabbath  "  for 


182      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S   DAY. 

contrast  between  these  two  days  was  tlie  contrast  be- 
tween the  Mosaic  and  the  more  ancient  sacred  day. 
Pentecost  was  the  one  day  in  the  year  which  the  whole 
nation  were  allowed  and  commanded  to  observe  as  Noah 
and  Abraham  ma}-^  have  observed  their  seventh  day.  It 
was  the  one  day  whose  two  features  were  the  convoca- 
tion and  the  sacrificial  meal.  Taking  the  Sabbath  pre- 
ceding with  it,  the  former  must  have  seemed  compara- 
tively bare.  Human  nature  must  have  looked  forward 
with  great  eagerness  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  succeeding 
day.     The  first  must  have  seemed  imperfect  and  expec- 

"  Sheba."  This  would  be  of  no  consequence  if  the  weeks  were  nor- 
mal weeks,  ending  with  a  Sabbath.  But  in  the  supposed  case  they 
are  not.  The  Sabbathon,  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  niinht 
occur  on  any  day  of  the  week.  If  that  is  the  true  starting- point, 
then  these  seven  weeks  following  would  each  end  on  the  same  day> 
whichever  of  the  seven  it  might  be.  Let  any  one  acquainted  with 
Hebrew  ask  how  a  series  of  such  abnoi-mal  weeks  could  possibly  be 
described  as  *'  Shabbathoth  t'minioth,"  completed  Sabbaths? 

It  was  perfectly  natural  that  the  name  of  the  seventh  day,  which 
marked  and  made  the  week,  should  be  put  for  the  week  as  we  find  it 
in  the  New  Testament.  But  that  it  should  be  put  for  any  group  of 
seven  days  to  which  the  Sabbath  day  has  no  special  relation  is  an 
assumption  which  no  one  has  a  right  to  make.  There  is  no  evidence 
of  such  usage.  The  word  sheba  is  always  used  in  such  cases  as  in 
Gen.  xxix.  27,  28. 

For  plain  readers  of  the  Scriptures  there  can  be  no  question  about 
the  meaning  of  this  passage.  And  such  may  be  assured  that  the 
Hebrew,  even  more  distinctly  than  the  English,  fixes  the  day  for 
Pentecost  on  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

There  would  never  have  been  a  question  on  this  subject,  it  may 
safely  be  asserted,  if  it  were  not  so  common  for  scholars  and  com- 
mentators, though  true  believers,  to  try  to  fit  the  Scripture  to  all  the 
scraps  that  have  come  down  from  the  ancient  world  to  us,  instead 
rather  of  trying  every  uninspired  statement,  whether  of  Jew  or  Gen- 
tile, by  the  infallible  word  of  Inspiration,  and  holding  the  unin- 
spired carefully  at  no  more  than  its  proper  value.  The  argument  of 
this  "  Study  "  will  not  be  without  force  even  to  those  who  hold  to 
the  view  opposed  in  this  note. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.     183 

tant  as  compared  with  the  freedom  and  material  enjoy- 
ment of  the  second. 

If  this  peculiarity  of  Pentecost,  its  liberty,  its  sim- 
plicity, its  naturalness,  its  homeliness  one  may  say,  was 
so  strongly  brought  to  view  by  its  contrast  with  its  two 
coordinate  festivals,  and  with  the  weekly  Sabbath,  a 
second  peculiarity  was  even  more  marked  and  striking. 
For,  while  not  a  single  historic  reason  for  its  institution 
is  mentioned,  and  while  it  was  enacted  on  the  bare  au- 
thority of  God,  in  a  sense  in  which  neither  of  the  other 
festivals,  nor  even  the  weekly  Sabbath,  was  ordained, 
there  was  an  event  of  the  grandest  majesty  which  it 
might  have  commemorated,  whose  anniversary  was  prob- 
abl}^  identical  with  it,  —  which,  nevertheless,  is  not  asso- 
ciated with  it  in  a  single  Scripture  sentence.  The  fact 
is  and  always  has  been  surprising,  and  without  the  New 
Testament  it  would  be  inexplainable.  The  Passover  was 
based  on  an  historic  event,  the  great  escape  from  bond- 
age, and  from  the  angel  of  death.  Tabernacles  also  was 
based  on  historic  fact,  the  long  abode  in  temporary  habi- 
tations and  the  supply  of  food  and  water  through  imme- 
diate divine  intervention.  The  Sabbath  also  was  based 
upon  recorded  events,  —  the  cessation  of  the  creative  ac- 
tivity after  six  successive  periods  of  exercise.  Pentecost, 
on  the  contrary,  was  enacted  arbitrarily.  No  reason  for 
it  was  given.  No  event  is  said  to  be  brought  to  remem- 
brance by  it.  No  purpose  within  the  range  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Pentateuch  can  be  assigned  to  it.  And  yet 
this  day  was  probably  the  very  day  on  which  God  spake 
the  ten  words  from  Sinai.  It  fell  in  the  third  month,^ 
on  a  day  between  the  sixth  and  the  twelfth.  In  Exodus 
xix.  1,  it  is  stated  that  on  this  third  month,  and  appar- 

^  "  In  tbe  third  month,  on  a  day  between  the  sixth  and  twelfth," 
i.  e.,  fifty  days  after  some  day  from  the  fifteenth  to  twenty-first  of 
Nisan,  the  first  month. 


184      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

ently  on  the  first  day  of  the  month,i  the  Israelites  or 
their  vanguard  reached  Sinai.  The  proclamation  of  the 
law  seems  to  have  occurred  not  many  days  Liter.  Tlie 
narrative  is  perfectly  harmonious  with  the  supposition 
that  the  august  transaction  took  place  somewhere  be- 
tween the  sixth  day  and  the  twelfth  day,  that  is,  at  the 
time  on  which  Pentecost  was  afterward  appointed.  But 
we  do  not  know  this.  The  record  shows  that  the  law 
was  proclaimed  at  or  about  this  time.  It  necessarily 
suggests  the  possibility  of  a  coincidence  in  time.  It 
neither  asserts  nor  denies  it.  Whatever  might  be  the 
fact  it  was  suppi-essed  from  the  record.  The  suppression 
could  not  be  accidental.  But  there  may  be  one  sufficient 
explanation.  It  may  be  that  although  Pentecost  neces- 
sarily suggested  the  anniversary  of  the  day  of  the  law, 
Israel  was  not  allowed  to  refer  it  to  that  day,  because  it 
was  held,  as  it  were,  in  reserve,  to  be  associated  in  the 
future  with  a  greater  day.  Transcendent  as  was  that 
day  when  the  ten  words,  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  en- 
tered the  ears  of  a  tribe,  secluded  and  separated  from 
their  kind  by  the  reverberating  mountains,  as  they  were 
afterwards  to  be  kept  separate  by  the  ordinances  pub- 
lished among  those  mountains,  —  it  may  be,  that  in  the 
estimation  of  Heaven  that  first  day  was  trauscended  by 
another  Avhen  the  Spirit  of  God  put  his  energ}^  into  hu- 
man hearts,  and  spoke  his  words  through  human  lips,  not 
merel}'  into  human  ears,  but  into  human  hearts  of  all 
races,  climes,  and  tongues.  If  this  be  so,  the  occasion 
for  this  festival  was  not  mentioned,  because  it  was  fifteen 
centuries  deep  in  the  future  ;  and  silence  was  observed 

1  "  First  dfiy  of  the  month."  The  precise  force  of  the  expression 
translated  "  the  same  day  "  is  uncertain.  Possibly  it  may  mean, 
"on  that  day  of  the  month  on  which  they  started,"  i.  e.,  the  four- 
teenth. But  the  general  impression  seems  to  be  that  it  means  the 
first  day  of  the  month. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.     185 

concerning  the  day  of  Sinai,  so  evidently  suggested  by 
tlie  time  of  tlie  year,  because  the  future  day,  while  so 
closely  and  intimately  related  to  that  Sinai  day  in  the 
association  of  fire  and  blast  with  the  inauguration  of  a 
new  dispensation,  it  surpassed  that  other,  not  indeed  in 
material  splendor  and  impressiveness,  but  in  spiritual 
power.  And  if  this  be  so,  then  tlie  freedom  of  the  festi- 
val, so  strongly  contrasted  with  the  restraints  of  the  other 
festivals  and  of  the  Sabbath,  was  to  be  a  type  of  the 
freedom,  the  spontaneity  of  religious  life,  the  all-embrac- 
ing joyfulness  and  enjoyment  of  that  coming  day,  which 
in  later  Scripture  the  prophets  described  with  glowing 
■words,  "After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  T  Jer.3i:33; 
will  put  my  law    in    their   inward  parts,   and   I'o,  2b;36: 

26  27  •  Ps. 

write  it  in  their  hearts."  40:8'. 

And  if  all  this  be  so,  then  the  same  explanation 
throws  light  on  the  descriptive  title  which  served  as 
the  name  of  this  nameless  festival.  Was  it  not  to  be 
expected  that,  at  some  time,  Israel  would  begin  to  ask 
why  this  mysterious  and  peculiar  festival  was  called 
*'  the  feast  of  weeks  "  or  "  the  feast  of  the  fiftieth  day  ?  " 
There  could  be  only  one  answer.  This  title  served  to 
fix  attention  upon  the  series  of  weeks  just  closed,  and 
especially  upon  the  fact  that  this  was  a  full  and  complete 
series,  a  week  of  weeks,  a  week  of  Sabbaths,  each  week 
crowned  by  the  Sabbath  at  its  close.  Plainly  this  insti- 
tution, ordained  of  God,  more  arbitrarily  ordained  than 
either  of  the  other  feasts,  was  adapted  to  fix  in  the  peo- 
ple's mind  the  idea  of  a  full  and  complete  and  finished 
series  of  Sabbaths.  It  would  be  easy  and  natural  to 
think  of  the  Sabbaths  going  on  indefinitel3^  Here,  on 
the  contrary,  is  a  picture  of  a  complete  but  limited  suc- 
cession. This  picture  is  embodied  in  one  of  the  three 
equally  solemn  anniversaries  appointed  by  God  himself, 
and  in  that  one  of  the  three  which,  while  it  suggested 


18G      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  day  when  God  more  than  at  any  other  time^  mani- 
fested his  personal  presence,  seemed  to  have  its  signifi- 
cance reserved,  as  if  it  were  not  so  much  the  memorial 
of  a  past,  as  the  forecast  of  a  future  greater  manifesta- 
tion of  that  personal  contact  with  men.  But  why  did 
not  this  complete  series  of  Sabbaths  lead  up  to  a  greater 
Sabbath  ?  Why  was  the  festival  which  crowned  the 
week  of  Sabbaths  a  different  Sabbath  ?  Either  day  serves 
to  divide  tlie  weeks  and  to  preserve  their  series  unbroken, 
and  no  day  of  the  seven  except  the  seventh  or  the  first 
would  serve.  But  the  seventh  day  Avas  made  the  pecul- 
iar seal^  of  the  national  institutions  ordained  by  God. 
Why,  then,  along  with  the  picture  of  a  limited  and  com- 
pleted series  of  these  Sabbaths,  was  the  other  picture 
drawn  of  a  greater  and  more  highly  honored  Sabbath 
succeeding  the  completed  series,  and  occupying  the  boun- 
dary day  of  the  week,  coordinate  in  the  week  series  with 
the  other,  but  set  above  it  symbolically?  There  is  noth- 
ing in  the  Pentateuch  by  which  we  can  suppose  that 
Israel  would  ever  be  able  to  solve  this  riddle.  The  most 
that  can  be  assumed  is,  that  the  presentation  of  tliese 
pictures  everj'-  year  would,  at  length,  cause  the  people  to 
notice  the  riddle  in  them  and  to  desire  and  look  for  its 
solution. 

Once  in  an  ordinary  lifetime  the  same  riddle  was  to  be 
presented  ^  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  year  of  Jubilee. 
Here  was  the  most  prominent  religious  observance  ever 
recorded  or  described.     Every  nation  has  had  its  saci'i- 

^  "  More  than  at  any  other  time."  Because,  by  his  words,  a  per- 
son not  seen  may  give  a  perfect  impression  of  his  personal  presence 
in  a  degree  that  is  not  possible  through  the  exhibition  of  energy  not 
visibly  traced  to  the  person. 

2  "  The  seal."     See  Ex.  xxxi.  12-1 7. 

8  "  Was  to  be  presented."  It  has  been  doubted  whether  the  Jubi- 
lee was  ever  observed.  Joshua  died,  aged  one  hundred  and  ten, 
about  twenty-five  years  after  the  allotment  of  the  land,  when  he  was 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE   TRANSIENT.      187 

fices,  its  ritual,  and  its  festivals.  But  no  other  nation  ever 
maintained  a  festival  like  the  Sabbath.  Many  agricul- 
tural nations  have  been  wont  to  let  their  land  lie  fallow 
after  so  many  years'  tillage.  But  no  other  nation  kept 
their  whole  arable  land  fallow  the  same  year.  Nothing 
like  the  sabbatic  year  was  known  elsewhere.  Now  it  is 
true  that  no  institution  given  to  Israel  surpassed  the 
weekly  Sabbath  in  its  dignit}'^  as  a  symbol,^  or  in  its  in- 
fluence for  education  and  devotion.  But  certainly  the 
year  long  Sabbath  would  impress  the  popular  mind  more 
deeply  than  that  which  lasted  only  a  day.  Both  to  the 
national  imao-ination  and  to  the  view  of  foreig-ners  it  was 
a  larger  fact.  It  presented  the  Sabbath  magnified.^  And 
it  must  not  be  overlooked,  that  to  great  numbers  it 
brought  material  consequences  of  the  highest  personal 
importance,  —  the  release  from  debt  and  from  bondage. 
Moreover,  in  regard  to  purely  religious  duties,  in  one 
ver}-^  weighty  particular  it  presented  the  standard  and 
norm.  The  chief  feature  of  tlie  weekly  Sabbath  was  the 
convocation.  The  most  striking  feature  of  the  convoca- 
tions must  have  been  the  recitations  of  the  law  and  of 
the  sacred  stories.     Certainly  if  these  statutes  had  been 

eighty-five  (45  -)-  40).  Conip.  Jo&b.  xxiv.  29  with  xiv.  7,  10.  If  the 
first  Jubilee  came  round  twenty-five  years  after  his  death,  there  was 
already  a  great  declension.  If  it  was  counted  from  the  giving  of  the 
law,  then  it  would  have  occurred  about  five  years  after  the  allotment. 
In  this  case  it  was  doubtless  duly  observed.  The  post  exilic  Jubilee, 
of  which  there  is  some  rather  dubious  trace,  could  have  been  only  a 
very  partial  observance,  a  mere  shadow  of  the  statute  at  the  best. 

1  "  Surpassed  in  its  dignity  as  a  symbol."  This  is  to  be  asserted 
with  reverent  care,  that  it  be  not  misunderstood.  The  whole  sacrificial 
system  was  typical  of  the  atonement  of  our  Lord.  He  was  the  aiiti- 
typic  Lamb  slain  from  the  beginning  of  the  redemption  of  the  world. 
But  in  order  to  be  the  Redeemer  He  humbled  himself.  Sacrifice  sym- 
bolizes his  humiliation.  Surely  the  Sabbath,  which  is  the  symbol  of 
his  exaltation  and  reign  over  his  people,  can  have  no  inferior  dignity. 

2  See  Study  VI.,  page  135. 


188       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

faithfully  observed,  all  devout  Israelites  would  have  looked 
forward  with  special  interest  to  the  opening  of  the  Sab- 
bath year,  when  the  official  reading  ^  of  the  Scripture  at 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  from  a  standard  copy  kept  in  the 
sacred  precincts,  would  have  tested  the  accuracy  of  the 
exercises  of  all  the  Sabbaths.  But  since  the  sabbatic  year 
was  so  remarkable,  so  prominent,  what  a  profound  impres- 
sion would  have  been  made  by  the  doubling  of  this  year ! 
And  since  the  whole  body  of  the  Mosaic  institutions  rested 
upon  the  agriculture  of  Israel's  land,  what  a  grave  inter- 
est would  have  attached  to  tbe  period  when  every  man's 
title  to  his  farm  was  subjected  to  revision  ?  And  among 
a  nation  of  farmers,  what  institution  could  have  compared, 
in  material  importance,  with  the  absolute  and  universal 
cessation  of  tillage  through  a  second  year  ?  Evidently 
this  institution  was  designed  to  be  the  apex  of  the  sab- 
batic system.  As  something  which  should  seize  their  im- 
agination, as  something  which  should  affect  their  material 
interest,  as  something  embodying  and  teaching  most  pre- 
cious religious  truth,  it  was  preeminent.  It  reflected 
measureless  dignity  upon  the  weekly  Sabbath,  whose 
transient  brevity  held  in  perspective  so  great  a  period  of 
corresponding  character.  It  prolonged  the  administration 
of  the  divine  ideas  in  human  affairs.  It  carried  the  re- 
adjustment of  social  conditions  not  only  in  the  personal 
sphere,  assuring  freedom  from  bondage,  nor  yet  only  fur- 
ther in  the  inter-social  sphere,  giving  release  from  debt, 
but  also  beyond  all  this  to  the  very  limit  of  men's  funda- 
mental relation  to  the  state,  confirming  to  each  man  his 
birthright  ^  in  its  soil.  In  this  readjustment  it  not  only 
delivered  every  Israelite  from  the  dishonor  of  debt  and 

1  "  Official  reading."     Deut.  xxxi.  9-13.     See  also  page  130. 

2  "  Birlluigbt."     See  pages  138-140  of  Study  VI.,  specially  page 
139. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE   TRANSIENT.      189 

of  slavery  but  from  the  helplessness  of  pauperism. ^  It 
barred  the  possibility  of  a  proletariat,  the  curse  and  ter- 
ror of  every  state  at  this  day.  It  brought  home  to  every 
citizen  the  active  divine  authority  not  only  over  personal 
conditions  and  obligations  but  also  over  the  land  itself. 
And  it  united  this  extreme  assertion  of  the  divine  pre- 
rogative with  a  very  remarkable  experience  ^  of  the  di- 
vine bounty,  and  a  coordinate  experience  of  their  ow^n 
brotherhood  ^  under  God's  Fatherhood.  But  the  position 
of  this  most  sacred  *  year,  the  most  prominent,  the  most 
critical,  the  most  pregnant  member  of  the  sabbatic  sys- 
tem, is  a  paradox.  Every  week  closed  with  its  seventh 
a  sacred  day.  In  every  year  the  seventh  was  a  sacred 
month.  Every  week  of  years  closed  with  its  seventh  a 
sacred  year.  And  now  the  climax  of  the  system  is  made 
not  the  closing  seventh  of  the  week  but  the  first  of  a 
week.  The  lesson  of  Pentecost  is  repeated,  and  by  the 
repetition  confirmed.     On  the  very  largest  scale  within 

1  "  From  pauperism."  By  giving  every  man  a  portion  of  the  ara- 
ble land. 

2  "  Remarkable  experience."  See  Lev.  xxv.  20-22.  In  the  wil- 
derness a  double  supply  of  manna  was  given  every  sixth  day,  so  that 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  brought  no  lack  of  food.  If  the  sab- 
batic years  had  been  observed,  this  promise  would  have  been  liter- 
ally fulfilled.  The  sabbatic  years  and  the  Jubilees  would  have  been 
years  of  plenty.  Moreover  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  spontaneous 
product  would  be  large  ;  as  verse  6,  "  The  sabbath  of  the  land  shall  be 
meat  for  you."  The  prohibition  in  verses  4,  5,  relates  to  acts  of  owner- 
ship. No  man  should  take  away  anything  as  his  own.  In  Ex.  xxiii. 
11,  permissFon  is  given  for  every  one  to  enjoy  the  fruit  of  the  earth 
in  common.     See  Study  VI.,  page  137,  and  especially  page  145. 

8  "  Brotherhood."     See  Study  VI.,  pages  137  and  148. 

*  "  ]\Iost  sacred,"  as  signifying  and  sealing  on  the  largest  scale 
the  bond  between  God  and  his  people.  "  Most  critical,"  as  bring- 
ing with  it  the  crisis  or  determining  point  of  the  most  important  con- 
ditions of  social  life.  "  Most  pregnant,"  as  holding  and  developing 
the  profoundest  lessons  of  truth  to  be  brought  eventually  to  the  fa- 
miliar actjuaintance  of  the  people. 


190       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  measure  of  human  life,  there  is  shown  as  in  the  feast 
of  Weeks,  a  picture  of  the  series  of  weeks  marked  by  the 
sacred  seventh  as  a  completed,  definite  closed  series,  fol- 
lowed by  new  arrangement  wherein  greater,  indeed  the 
greatest,  dignity  rests  not  on  the  seventh  but  on  the 
first,  while  the  succession  of  the  weeks  is  unbroken. 

The  reader  must  not  forget  the  essential  condition  under 
which  this  instruction,  like  all  divine  instruction,  must  be 
given  to  man.  Our  minds  must  first  become  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  details  of  the  objects  or  ideas  presented, 
and  then,  but  not  till  then,  can  they  advance  to  a  consid- 
eration of  the  underlying  relations  of  those  objects  or 
ideas.  It  may  be  reverently  but  fearlessly  asserted,  that 
it  was  not  intended,  as  it  was  not  possible  without  a  mir- 
acle, to  impress  the  lessons  of  the  sabbatic  system  on  the 
people  immediately.  They  were  commanded  to  obey. 
Obedience  is  the  coi'ner-stone  of  education.  Israel's  edu- 
cation was  to  continue  through  centuries.  By  obedience, 
he  would  have  been  educated  to  perceive  the  problems 
which  his  own  law  presented.  Seeing  them,  he  would 
have  looked  for  their  solution.  The  more  devout  and 
loyal  he  might  be,  the  more  anxiously  would  he  long  for 
that  solution,  as  believers  now  long  that  the  incompre- 
hensible problem  of  sin  and  suffering  may  be  solved.  But 
not  until  the  new  Prophet  and  Lawgiver  should  appear 
could  the  solution  be  found.  We  have  the  key.  Before 
the  Christ  came  no  mortal  could  unlock  the  mystery. 

It  can  be  imagined  that  in  some  country  the  industry 
of  extracting  perfumes  from  blossoms  was  practiced  in  all 
the  orchards.  The  workmen  for  years  and  for  genera- 
tions had  gathered  and  treated  all  the  blossoms  of  all  the 
fruit-trees  known  to  them,  and  had  never  seen  the  fruit 
formed  on  any  one.  By  lifelong  attention  to  this  work 
they  became  perfectly  familiar  with  all  the  minutiie  of 
blossom  sti'ucture.     Any  of  them  could  describe  each  and 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE   TRANSIENT.      191 

every  part  to  its  smallest  feature  more  accurately  than 
the  most  learned  botanists  of  other  lands.  They  clearly 
understood  that  each  blossom  was  an  organism,  and  its 
parts  related  to  one  another.  They  had  long  since  dis- 
covered the  adaptation  of  certain  parts  for  the  production 
of  results  having  appreciable  value,  such  as  color,  fra- 
grance, and  flavor.  They  had  perceived  a  certain  coor- 
dination in  these  results.  Tlie^^  had  also  perceived  a 
certain  harmony  in  the  combination  of  the  structural 
parts,  and  especially  the  very  evident  arithmetical  sym- 
metry in  the  numerical  coefficients  of  these  parts.  But 
they  had  also  noticed  some  strange  exceptions  to  this 
harmony  and  symmetry.  The  bitter  pollen,  for  example, 
was  in  strange  contrast  to  the  general  sweetness.  And 
then  the  number  five,  so  often  repeated  in  other  parts,  so 
characteristic  of  the  whole  structure  of  the  tree,  was  re- 
placed b}'  an  unconformable  number  for  the  pistils.  The 
workmen  never  could  learn  or  guess  the  use  of  these  ex- 
ceptional parts.  But  those  among  them  who  knew  that 
the  blossom  (and  the  whole  tree)  was  the  creation  of  In- 
finite Wisdom,  felt  sure  that  the  peculiarities  of  pollen 
and  pistils  must  have  some  sufficient  reason,  though  they 
could  not  imagine  one. 

Then  it  may  be  further  supposed  that,  after  centuries 
of  dealing  exclusively  with  blossoms,  some  commercial 
crisis  turned  the  attention  of  all  these  workmen  exclu- 
sively to  the  fruit.  To  their  astonishment  they  saw  it 
develop  and  mature  into  something  fair,  savory,  and  nu- 
tritious, more  grateful  and  useful  to  man  than  the  blos- 
som had  been.  They  began  to  prepare  it  in  various 
ways,  and  in  their  work  they  gradually  became  aware  of 
its  organic  structure  and  of  its  organic  relation  to  the 
blossom.  They  saw  that  in  respect  to  color  and  fra- 
grance and  flavor  it  preserved  the  subtle  harmonies  of 
the  blossom.     They  discovered  in  its  centre  and  core  the 


192        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

characteristic  number  five.  They  also  learned  —  and  ifc 
surprised  and  pleased  them  most  of  all  —  that  the  pollen 
and  the  pistils,  those  exceptional  parts  of  the  blossom, 
whose  pecidiarities  they  could  not  account  for,  were  the 
parts  most  directly  related  to  the  fruit. 

Israel  worked  for  ages  with  the  blossom.  It  was  his 
business  to  become  familiar  with  every  smallest  item, 
every  jot  and  tittle  of  its  organism.  He  could  not  know 
what  the  fruit  would  be.  He  could  not  conceive  of  the 
fruit,  and  therefore  was  not  explicitly  told  how  it  would 
differ  from  the  blossom.  He  was  told,  however,  that 
somehow  and  at  some  time  a  blessing  to  all  nations  was 
to  come,  and  that  it  was  to  come  somehow  through  and 
by  and  out  of  this  blossom.  Then,  when  he  came  to 
know  thoroughly  all  the  several  parts  and  organs  of  the 
blossom,  and  found  that  some  were  exceptional,  and  that 
their  peculiarities  contributed  no  appreciable  component 
to  the  functions  of  the  blossom  as  a  blossom  merely,  fur- 
nishing no  harmonious  constituent  to  its  color  or  flavor 
or  fragrance,  and  vai'ying  from  its  radical  number,  and 
yet  too  prominent  to  be  put  down  as  accidents,  he  might 
have  said :  "  This  blossom  is  not  the  perfect  counterpart 
of  the  promise.  In  some  respects  it  is  a  contrast.  Some- 
how it  must  be  changed  in  order  to  correspond  with  that 
promise.  These  organic  parts,  which  seem  out  of  pro- 
portion and  harmony  in  the  blossom  as  it  is,  must  be 
placed  there  to  serve  in  some  way  that  which  is  to  be. 
The  seventh  of  the  week  and  the  first  of  the  week  must 
have  their  connection  explained  by  some  event  yet  in  the 
future."     But  the  riddle  would  stand  unsolved. 

To  us,  the  principles  involved  in    this  solution   have 
been    made  very   clear  by   the    Apostle    Paul. 

•^  "^  ^  Gal.  3:  17. 

"  And  this  I  say,  that   the  covenant  tliat  was 
confirmed  before  of  God  in  Christ,  the  law,  which  was 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after,  cannot  disannul." 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE   TRANSIENT.     193 

That  is,  whatever  in  the  law  was  inconsistent  with 
the  promise  or  inadequate  to  its  scope,  must  be  changed. 
The  fact  that  anything  in  the  hiw  was  inconsistent  or 
inadequate  is  perfect  proof  that  the  Allwise  put  it  tliere 
for  a  temporary  purpose,  with  a  view  to  an  ultimate 
modification. 

Therefore,  also,  the  terms  of  the  promise  enable  us 
certainly  to  distinguish  the  conditions  under  which  any 
part  of  the  law  must  be  maintained  or  modified. 

I.  Whatever  should  last  must  be  extensible.  It  must 
be  capable  of  blessing  all  nations  and  all  the  families  of 
the  earth. 

II.  Whatever  should  last  must  be  a  positive  and  unal- 
loyed blessing. 

III.  AVhatever  should  last  must  be  directly  related  to 
that  Promised  Seed  throug-h  whom  the  blessing  must 
come. 

By  the  application  of  these  principles  certain  features 
of  the  sabbatic  system,  established  under  Moses,  may  con- 
fidently be  pronounced  permanent  and  sure  to  continue 
on  through  the  Sabbath  of  the  New  Dispensation.  Among 
these  are  :  — 

I.  Decentralization.  That  new  Sabbath  must  be  an 
institution  which  men  can  observe  in  any  place  and  under 
any    conditions,  —  alone,   but  "  in   the  Spirit," 

like    John    at    Patmos,  —  or,    breaking    bread 

with     the    whole    congregation,    like    Paul     at  Acts  20:7.; 

Troas. 

II.  Sociality.  It  must  be  observed  by  customs  which 
bring  believers  together  as  believers,  by  families  and 
communities  or  congregations,  and  by  customs  which  ef- 
face all  hindrances  to  such  assemblage  and  communion. 

III.  Covenant.  Its  observance  must  carry  on  its  face 
the  profession  of  attachment  to  the  covenant  by  which 
God's  personal  acceptance  is  promised,  and  the   public 

13 


194      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

avowal  of  loyalty  to  our  Lord,  the  Seed  of  Abraham  and 
the  Author  of  tlie  world-wide  blessing.  Certain  other 
features  of  that  old  system  must,  under  application  of  the 
same  rules,  be  pronounced  transitional.  The  ideas  which 
they  present  concerning  God's  administration  of  his  plan 
of  redemption  cannot  be  altered  one  jot  or  tittle.  But 
the  forms  must  perish  in  order  to  preserve  those  ideas,  as 
the  petals  must  die  for  the  sake  of  the  fruit.  Among 
these  are :  — 

I.  All  that  relates  to  land  divisions  and  titles  and  till- 
age, and  hence  is  limited  to  Palestine. 

II.  All  that  relates  to  civil  jurisdiction  over  acts  of 
personal  homage  to  God.  No  national  organization  can 
stand,  henceforth,  between  the  individual  soul  and  God.^ 

III.  All  that  relates  to  sabbatic  numeration  ;  that  is, 
all  the  parts  and  features  of  the  system  which  give 
sacredness  to  the  seventh  successive  period  of  time, 
whether  day,  month,  or  year. 

The  week  is  not  in  question.  It  is  taken  for  granted, 
and  nowhere  ordained  by  Moses.  It  existed  before  his 
day,  and  has,  in  fact,  outlived  the  system  which  he  intro- 
duced. That  system  was  only  an  episode  in  the  history 
of  the  week.  But,  as  shown  in  a  previous  Stud}^,  the 
week  depends  upon  a  sacred  day  for  its  boundar}^  and 
count.^  If  the  seventh  day  ceases  to  be  a  Sabbath,  the 
first  day  onl}^  can  take  its  place  as  a  boundary  and  start- 
ing-point. 

The  inconsistency  and  inadequacy  of  the  Mosaic  sev- 

^  Study  III.,  page  73. 

2  So  far  as  the  national  entity  is  concerned,  our  Lord  is  himself 
the  antitype  of  Israel.  Thus  Matt.  ii.  15,  or  Hosea  xi.  1,  "  Out  of 
Egypt  have  I  called  my  Son."  Compare,  also,  the  pi-ophecies  of 
Isaiah  concerning  the  "  Servant  of  the  Lord,"  where  the  nation  and 
the  Messiah  are  blended.  Under  the  Mosaic  constitution  the  na- 
tional authority  was,  in  many  respects,  a  mediator.  Now  there  is 
none  but  Christ. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.      195 

entli  day  Sabbath^  as  a  permanent  institution  may  be 
examined  by  the  application  of  the  tbree  principles  al- 
ready stated  :  — 

A.  It  could  not  be  extended  as  -wide  as  the  Promise. 

B.  It  could  not  be  experienced  as  a  positive,  unalloyed 
blessing. 

C.  It  could  not  express  the  relation  of  those  blessed 
among  all  nations  to  the  Promised  Seed  who  redeems 
them. 

A.  The  Mosaic  Sabbath  was  not  extensible. 

Of  course  the  sabbatic  system  could  not  be  extended. 
It  was  essentially  local  and  limited.  Therefore  the  ques- 
tion rises  whether  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  could  be  pre- 
served apart  from  that  system,  and  there  is  a  further 
question  whether,  if  isolated  from  its  system,  it  could  be 
extended  to  all  nations. 

The  possibility  of  separating  the  Sabbath  from  the 
rest  of  the  sabbatic  system  seems  to  be  established  by 
the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  existed  before  that  system  was 
promulgated.  But  that  ancient  Sabbath  was  not  the 
Mosaic.^  It  was  not  divested  of  the  sacrifice,  and  it  was 
not  maintained  by  civil  authority,  and  it  was  not  observed 
by  the  cessation  of  ALL  labor,  whether  in  cottage,  tent, 
or  field ;  although,  as  a  day  of  assembly  and  sacrifice,  — 
a  festival  day  as  well  as  a  religious  day,  —  it  was  a  day 

^  The  "  Mosaic  Sabbath."  This  phrase  is  only  used  for  distinc- 
tion. It  was  ordained  by  God,  not  by  Moses.  Under  Moses,  by 
the  command  ot"  God,  the  emphasis  was  hiid  upon  the  seventh  day. 
That  emphasis,  therefore,  had  to  be  eliminated  for  the  new  disj^en- 
sation.  But  it  was  impossible  to  remove  that  emphasis,  under  the 
circumstances,  except  by  changing  the  day.  Hence,  in  referring  to 
the  Israelitish  Sabbath,  the  terms  "Mosaic"  and  "seventh  day 
Sabbath  "  may  be  used  interchangeably. 

*  Noah  sacrificed  on  this  day,  and  unroofed  the  ark  on  this  day. 
Apparently,  also,  he  completed  his  embarkation  on  this  day.  The 
uses  of  the  day  made  it  a  day  of  rest,  not  a  statute. 


196      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LOBD'S  DAY. 

of  rest.  Above  all,  that  early  Sabbath  did  not  have  the 
lai'ge  illustration  which  the  Mosaic  system  contained,  and 
it  did  not  receive  that  emphasis  as  the  seventh  day  which, 
by  the  enforcement  of  so  many  sevenths  and  reduplica- 
tions of  sevenths,  that  system  laid  upon  the  Sabbath  of 
Israel.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  a  Sabbath  might 
remain  after  the  sabbatic  system  had  disappeared,  but 
it  is  not  certain  that  it  could  remain  as  the  INlosaic 
Sabbath. 

But  how  could  the  Mosaic  system  be  abolished  ?  Only 
by  the  act  of  that  Lawgiver  whom  Moses  foretold.  If, 
then.  He  should  take  the  Sabbath  out  of  its  system,  and 
ordain  that  all  the  features  and  characteristics  given  to  it 
by  Moses  should  remain,  except  the  observance  of  the 
associated  sabbatic  times,  then  it  would  stand  by  his 
word.  But  without  his  word  it  could  not  stand.  It 
could  not  be  necessary  for  Him  to  enact  that  some  Sab- 
bath, some  sacred  day  in  the  week,  should  remain.  Such 
an  institution,  being  older  than  Moses,  was  independent 
of  Moses,  and  needed,  if  anything  at  all,  no  more  than 
evidence  that  He  observed  it.  This  evidence  our  Lord 
gave  in  coming  to  his  disciples  on  the  resurrection  day, 
and  then,  next,  on  the  next  first  day.  He  did  not  ordain 
that  any  of  those  characteristics  which  made  the  Sabbath 
INlosaic  should  be  preserved.  Therefore  they  must  share 
in  the  development  of  the  whole  system.  Since  in  fact 
He  did  not  sejiarate  it,  no  other  might  or  could. 

Moreover,  there  is  an  historical  example  showing  what 
the  Mosaic  Sabbath,  divorced  from  the  system  to  which 
God  married  it,  would  become.  In  the  last  period  of  the 
Jewish  polity  the  Sabbath  was,  to  a  very  great  extent, 
isolated.  The  larger  part  of  the  nation  lived  in  foreign 
lands.  INIuch  of  their  own  land  was  not  in  their  own 
hands.  The  nation,  as  a  whole,  was  no  longer  agricul- 
tural.    Both  in  the  Israel  at  home  and  the  greater  Israel 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.     197 

abroad  tliere  was  very  little  and  very  imperfect  practical 
experience  of  anything  but  the  Sabbath.  The  great  body 
of  tlie  nation  could  in  no  way  be  affected  by  the  sabbatic 
year  or  Jubilee,  if  they  should  try  to  keep  them  ;  neither 
could  they  have  occasion,  except  for  the  form's  sake,  to 
count  the  weeks  to  Pentecost,  or  the  months  to  the  feast 
of  Trumpets.  To  craftsmen  and  traders  living  in  every 
city  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  these  observances,  for- 
mei'ly  engrossing  realities  to  the  farmers  in  Palestine, 
were  only  an  exhibition  or  a  legend.  The  seventh  day 
of  the  week  alone  remained  as  a  practical  reality.  This 
was  as  much  a  reality  as  the  rest  was  a  dream.  It 
marked  them  as  a  peculiar  people  among  all  their  neigh- 
bors. It  brought  them  ridicule  and  persecution.  Their 
whole  law  seemed  concentrated  in  it,  both  in  the  eyes  of 
the  heathen  and  of  themselves. 

The  result  was  a  Sabbath  whose  peculiarities,  as  limned 
here  and  there  in  the  New  Testament,  are  often  repulsive. 
It  has  not  the  expression,  the  aroma,  of  the  Pentateuch. 
With  its  isolation,  or  because  of  its  isolation,  it  lost  both 
attractiveness  and  spiritual  force.  The  import  of  various 
New  Testament  references  may  be  gathered  into  a  few 
particulars. 

It  had  become  to  the  Jews  an  oj!?ms  operatum,  a  duty 
to  be  done  for  form's  sake,  independent  of  morality  or 
faitli.^  "  Keeping  the  Sabbath  "  was  not  inconsistent  in 
their  eyes  with  cruelty  and  deceit.  It  is  difficult  to  de- 
tect any  moral  quality  in  it,  except  what  is  associated 
with  the  synagogue. 

It  had  become  destitute  of  religious  significance  as  well 
as  of  religious  influence.  It  did  not  seem  in  any  way  to 
suggest  the  kingdom  of  God.  Doubtless,  if  a  Pharisee 
had  heard  it  explained  as  an  image  and  foretaste  of  God's 
administration  of  the  social  organization  of  his  people  in 

^  In  general.     There  were  exceptions,  of  course  ;  possibly  many. 


198      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

its  perfect  development,  he  would  liave  stared  in  bewil- 
derment. 

And,  final]}^  it  Lad  become  the  expression  of  loyalty 
to  the  nation  rather  than  of  personal  devotion  to  God. 
There  was  pithy  suggestiveness  in  the  phraseology  nsed 
in  describing  the  friendly  centurion  by  the  elders  of  Ca- 
pernaum: "He  loveth  our  nation  and  hath  built  ns  a 
sjMiagogue."  This  was  not  a  cliance  or  singular  wording. 
The  nation  had  come  to  stand  between  men  and  God. 
God  was  indeed  their  nation's  God,  but  they  belonged  to 
God  only  because  they  belonged  to  the  nation.  This 
was  the  historical  outcome  of  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  isolated 
from  the  ordinances  with  which  God  encircled  it ;  an  ob- 
servance lacking  moral  force,  lacking  spiritual  instruc- 
tiveness,  lacking  personal  communion  with  God. 

Still  the  question  remains,  whether,  if  in  any  way  it  had 
been  possible  to  preserve  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  apart  from 
its  system,  that  Sabbath  could  not  have  been  adapted  to 
the  new  conditions?  If  Israel  had  been  faithful  up  to 
the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  might  not  their  Sabbath  in 
that  case  have  endured  unchanged  ?  Might  not  those 
prophecies  of  a  change  which  were  embodied  in  institu- 
tions like  the  Pentecost  and  the  Jubilee  have  been  de- 
ferred, say,  until  Messiah's  second  coming  ?  Might  not 
the  superintending  Spirit  of  God  have  preserved  the 
Church  both  from  losing  the  spiritual  power  and  instruc- 
tiveness  which  the  associated  observances  gave  to  the 
Sabbath,  and  equally  from  attempting  to  replant  those 
observances  in  lands  where  they  could  not  live  and  where 
God  did  not  sow  them  ?  To  these  questions,  so  far  as  they 
relate  to  moral  possibilities,  the  only  answer  must  be,  that 
in  fact  God  has  not  preserved  that  Sabbath.  Further,  no 
one  can  know. 

But  a  physical  obstacle  to  universal  expansion  of  the 
seventh  day,   the  Mosaic   Sabbath,  is  insuperable.     Its 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE    TRANSIENT.      199 

time  was  defined  by  the  statute.  It  was  the  seventh  day 
in  the  land  of  Israel.  It  began  and  ended  with  the  sun- 
set. The  fact  that  it  was  the  strictly  defined  day  of  a 
small  territory  forbade  that  it  should  be  the  day  of  all 
the  earth.  For  that  service  a  day  was  required  that 
should  be  free  from  the  limitations  of  a  local  statute, 
free  to  be  adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  man  in  all 
nations.  When  the  blessing  of  the  Promise  should  be 
carried  to  tribes  in  the  far  north,  where  the  sun  dur- 
ino;  some  summer  nicrhts  never  sets  and  during  some 
winter  days  never  rises,  how  could  the  faithful  there 
keep  the  JNIosaic  day  ?  ^ 

Or  suppose  that  the  blessing  of  the  Promise  had  spread 
eastward,  and  all  the  nations  had  with  it  received  the 
Judean  Seventh,  and  that  it  had  passed  beyond  Asia, 
and  from  island  to  island  of  the  sea,  until  it  had  reached 
America,  so  that  over  more  than  a  hemisphere  eastward 
from  Jerusalem  one  day  was  kept !  As  the  observance 
spread  always  eastward,  the  Sabbath  would  begin  earlier 
in  each  newly  gained  region,  until  in  America  it  might 
be  sixteen  hours  in  advance  of  Jerusalem.  The  even 
fall  then  beginning  in  America  would  mark  the  opening 
of  the  Sabbath  all  the  way  across  that  continent,  and 
across  the  Pacific,  and  across  broad  Asia,  until  after  six- 
teen hours  its  shadow  veiled  Mount  Zion.  All  this  would 
be  one  Sabbath  day. 

And  now  suppose  that  the  blessing  and  the  Sabbath 
were  carried  in  the  opposite  direction,  that  the  nations  in 
Europe  and  Africa  received  it,  and  that  a  tide  of  emigra- 
tion carried  whole  nations  of  these  believers  across  the 
Atlantic,  bringincj  the  same  Sabbath  with  them.  Then 
the  sunset  which  beoan  the   Sabbath   in  America,  and 

^  The  legal  beginning  and  ending  of  a  day  is  described  as  "  at 
even  "  in  Ex.  xii.  18.  In  the  passage  refening  to  the  paschal  lamb, 
the  expression  is  literally  "between  the  evenings." 


-00      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

after  some  sixteen  hours  brought  it  to  Jerusalem,  and 
then  for  about  eight  hours  more  carried  it  onwards  over 
Europe  and  the  Athmtic,  would  bring  it  back  to  its  start- 
ing-point, and  henceforth  the  dwellers  in  America  might 
have  two  Sabbaths  in  succession,  each  the  identical  day 
of  Judea.  And  this  confusion  could  not  be  avoided. 
For  the  day  of  the  world  ^  is  as  unending  as  the  sunshine 
which  jDasses  round  and  round  it.  The  local  day  only  is 
limited  to  twenty-four  hours.  To  tie  down  the  whole 
world  to  the  local  day  of  a  minute  district  would  be  to 
harass  the  devotion  of  all  nations  with  incessant  per- 
plexities and  contradictions.  Perhaps  when  knowledge 
advanced  men  would  insist  upon  keeping  the  identical 
hours,  and  might  telegraph  round  the  world  the  Jerusa- 
lem sunset,  so  that  at  that  precise  minute  the  Sabbath  of 
the  world  might  begin  its  dead  and  senseless  literalism. 

No  ;  for  all  nations  a  Sabbath  was  needed  adjustable  to 
the  conditions  of  men  in  all  lands.  The  exercise  of  rev- 
erent common  sense  in  its  adjustment  must  not  be  ham- 
pered b}^  uncertainties,  nor  by  scruples  arising  from  the 
etymology,  the  usage,  or  the  translation  of  a  word.  In 
our  age  Christian  common  sense  has  drawn  a  line  in 
the  western  Pacific,^  and  agreed  that  every  day  shall  be 
counted  as  beginning  and  ending  at  that  line.  Under 
the  Mosaic  Sabbath  such  an  agreement  would  not  be 
lawful.     The  exercise  of  discretion^  was  forbidden.     Ac- 

^  Those  who  insist  upon  a  literal  use  of  the  word  "  day  "  in  Gen- 
esis i.  should  remember  that  in  that  sense  it  could  be  applied  only 
to  the  world-day,  which  is  age-long,  beginning  when  no  light  falls 
on  this  planet,  and  ending  when  by  any  cause  the  light  is  again 
withdrawn  from  it. 

2  In  point  of  fact  the  line  is  not  straight.  In  the  main  it  is  the 
180    meridian  of  Greenwich.     But  there  are  defiections. 

8  No  discretion.  See  Deut.  xxvii.  26,  as  quoted  Gal.  iii.  10. 
Also,  Ex.  XXV.  40  quoted  Heb.  viii.  5.  It  is  true  that  the  later  Jews 
allowed  themselves  discretion  in  many  things,  but  it  was  not  lawful. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND    THE    TRANSIENT.     201 

curate  obedience  was  required.  And  with  exact  obedi- 
ence to  the  statute,  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  could  not  become 
the  Sabbath  for  all  nations  enjoying  the  blessings  of  the 
Promise. 

B.  The  Mosaic  Sabbath,  as  peculiarly  Mosaic,  was  not 
a  positive  and  unalloyed  blessing.  The  day  did  indeed 
bring  blessings  with  it.  But  through  the  ages  before 
Moses  it  had  brought  these  blessings:  the  consciousness 
of  reconciliation  with  God  through  sacrifice  ;  of  hope 
through  meditation,  on  the  story  of  his  dealing  with  man 
and  on  the  words  of  his  promise;  of  fellowship  in  the  tie 
of  religion  that  bound  them  to  Him,  with  all  others  who 
prayed  to  Him,  —  masters  and  servants,  young  and  old, 
all  together  on  a  day  that  brought  relaxation  and  social 
enjoyment  sanctified  by  worship.  In  the  changes  intro- 
duced by  the  Mosaic  statutes  there  were  also  great  bless- 
ings. They  were  real  blessings,  but  they  did  not  equal 
the  measure  of  the  promise.  They  were  not  positive  in 
their  form,  and  they  were  not  unalloyed  in  their  prac- 
tical working.     Like  the  law,  as  a  whole  they 

.      .      .  .  ,         Qeb.  10 :  1. 

were  only  disciplinary  and  preparative,  —  "  the 
shadows  of  good  things  to  come." 

The  form  of  all  the  new  regulations  was  restrictive. 
The  key-note  in  all  their  parts  was,  "  refrain,"  "  thou 
shall  not."  The  day,  indeed,  was  not  empty.  It  had 
useful  and  enjoyable  employments.-^  But  these  were 
rather  instituted  than  commanded.  Cessation  of  labor 
in  field,  bazaar,  and  kitchen,  —  this  was  the  specific 
command.  This  was  the  feature  of  the  day  on  the  face 
The  circumstances  which  forced  them  to  modify  their  conformity 
were  the  result  and  punishment  of  voluntaiy  disrobed ience.  It  is 
to-day  an  experience  common  enough  that  one  wliohas  viohxted  duty, 
when  able  to  perform  it,  soon  finds  himself  entangled  in  circum- 
stances which  render  it  impossible  to  perform  it  faithfully  if  he 
would. 

1  Study  v.,  page  115. 


202       EIGHT  STUDIES   UF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

of  the  statute.  This  was  the  one  feature  of  the  clay 
which  the  zealots  of  the  age  of  degenevacy  magnified. 
They  did  not,  indeed,  neglect  the  convocation  and  other 
adjuncts  of  the  day.  In  no  period  could  the  true  and 
faithful  have  overlooked  these.  The  Pharisees  thought 
it  behooved  every  one  to  attend  the  synagogue  and  read 
or  listen  to  the  Scriptures.  Probabl}^  they  would  have 
blamed,  certainly  they  would  have  despised,  a  neglecter 
of  these  duties.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  greatest 
neglect  of  the  synagogue  would  have  stirred  them  to 
serious  anger,  or  led  to  any  prosecution  of  the  offender. 
Matt.  12: 14 ;  ^^^'^"'  however,  our  Lord  on  the  Sabbath 
Mark 3:  6.  ]jealed  a  withered  arm,  the  Pharisees  were 
roused  to  bitterest  malignity.  And  the  common  mob, 
when  they  learned  that  He  had  bidden  the  restored 
paralytic  carry  his  pallet  on  the  Sabbath  from  Bethesda 
to  his  home,  tried  to  wreak  their  fury  on  Hira  at  once. 
The  restriction  of  the  Sabbath  had  been  broken  through, 
as  they  deemed,  and  in  their  eyes  the  whole  Sabbath 
consisted  of  this  restriction.  Verbally  and  literally  they 
were  right.  But  they  could  not  see  that  the  restriction 
was  enacted  in  order  to  secure  for  every  one,  even  the 
humblest,  a  share  in  the  day's  privileges.  This  object 
was  not  stated,  because  it  was  one  of  the  things  to  be 
learned  by  use.  Because  it  was  not  stated  they  disre- 
garded it,  and  asserted,  practically,  that  the  restriction 
was  for  its  own  petty  sake  alone.  Thus  they  really  set 
the  Sabbath  in  comparison  with  the  forbidden  fruit  of 
Eden,  with  the  restriction  of  that  tree  by  which  man 
fell,  instead  of  the  fruit  of  that  other  tree  of  Calvary  by 
whose  free  gift  man  rose  to  life. 

If,  then,  the  INlosaic  day  should  have  gone  down  into 
the  Christian  centuries  instead  of  the  Lord's  Day,  it 
would  have  been  as  a  restriction.  And  since  it  would 
have  been  isolated  from  its  coordinate  system,  and  re- 
garded as  a  thing  apart,  separated  from  all  else  in  the 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE   TRANSIENT.      203 

law,  it  would  have  been  only  a  restriction.  And  this 
restriction  could  not  have  been  applied  to  "  all  nations." 
Those  exposed  to  the  rigors  of  a  northern  winter  would 
have  found  it  an  infliction  rather  than  a  blessing  if  it 
exposed  them  to  the  rigors  of  fireless  ^  chill.  Some  proc- 
esses in  the  arts  cannot  be  suspended  on  one  day  in 
seven.  Police  duty  cannot  be  intermitted,  neither  can 
the  labor  of  providing  gas,  and  lighting  up  a  modern 
city.  There  is  very  much  in  the  complex  activity  of 
modern  civilization  which  cannot  be  pressed  down  to  rigid 
compliance  with  the  Mosaic  law.  Civilization  would  be 
set  at  variance  with  the  divine  law,  or  else  hampered 
and  distorted,  and  no  man  would  think  of  that  law  as  a 
positive  blessing. 

But  suppose  the  doctrine  of  necessity  and  mercy  were 
brought  forward,  and,  on  that  ground,  the  day  were 
released  from  restriction  to  any  extent  which  anybody 
might  think  appropriate.  Even  then,  if  anything  were 
left  of  the  old  Sabbath  law,  whatever  was  left  would 
remain  a  mere  restriction  as  before.  The  old  Sabbath 
might  be  in  danger  of  perishing  at  the  demands  of  mod- 
ern society,  but  if  it  survived  its  character,  as  found  in 
the  old  statutes,  could  not  be  changed. 

But  if  the  conditions  of  modern  life  could  be  changed 
so  that  all  the  nations  could  share  in  sabbatic  rest,  ac- 
cording to  the  Mosaic  law,  that  would  not  suffice  for  the 
promised  blessing.  Rest,  indeed,  is  not  an  unmeaning 
word.  In  its  place  it  is  a  real  and  a  great  good.  The 
sabbatic  rest  brought  great  advantages  to  the  people  of 
Israel.  So  evident  now  are  the  benefits  to  an^^  common- 
wealth of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  that  political  economists 
plead  for  the  civil  Sabbath,  so-called,  on  purely  secular 
grounds.  But  rest  is  one  thing.  Positive  blessedness  is 
another  and  a  very  different  thing.     Perfect  blessedness 

^  "  Fireless."     See  Ex.  xxxv.  3,  compared  with  Ex.  xii.  16. 


204       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

needs  no  rest^  for  it  knows  no  exhaustion.  The  blessinsr 
of  the  Promise  must  be  something  wliich  sliall  not  only 
relieve  the  \ve;uy  from  the  pressure  of  toil,  but  fill  tlieir 
souls  with  refreshment  and  stimulating  hope  ;  something 
which  shall  not  merely  represent  the  covenant  of  God, 
but  surround  the  soul  with  palpable  and  irresistible 
manifestations  of  his  unmeasured  love  ;  something  which 
shall  not  only  suggest  the  "  beauty  of  holiness,"  the  order 
and  benevolence  of  God's  rule,  but  in  its  historic  occa- 
sion, in  its  associations,  in  what  is  breathed  in  its  air, 
shall  bring  to  the  soul  the  seal  and  assurance  and  fore- 
taste of  the  Avhole  sura  of  good  that  man  may  hope  to 
receive  from  God. 

While  thus  on  the  one  hand  the  form  of  the  ordinances 
which  commanded  sabbath  rest  failed  to  guarantee  posi- 
tive blessedness,  so  on  the  other  hand  the  practical  oper- 
ation of  these  ordinances,  being  wholly  in  the  sphere  of 
obligation,  could  not  afford  an  experience  of  unalloyed 
blessedness.  Perfect  love  casteth  out  fear.  Perfect  loy- 
alty scorns  compulsion.  The  old  Sabbath  was  enforced 
by  the  sword.  It  was  discipline,  drill,  dictation.  It 
might  be  love  and  loyalty  also,  but  it  could  not  be  love 
and  loyalty  alone.  In  this  it  was  inadequate  to  repre- 
sent the  blessedness  of  the  Promise.  As  surely  as  a  new 
dispensation  must  come,  so  must  a  new  Sabbath  come 
with  it. 

Moses  did  not  prophesy  directly  of  that  new  dispensa- 
tion. He  spoke  only  of  the  advent  of  the  New  Law- 
giver to  whom  the  people  should  liearken.  He  left  them 
to  learn  by  degrees  from  the  practical  woi'king  of  their 
institutions,  and  from  comparing  them  with  their  an- 
cestral Promise,  that  a  great  change  must  occur  when 
jer.  31:  t^^^t  Lawgiver  should  appear.  In  later  daj^s 
pp"m,il?.)  Jeremiah  described  the  new  dispensation.  His 
Ueb.  8: 8-12.  ■words  are  quoted  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
1  "  No  rest."     Kev.  iv.  8;  vii.  15. 


THE  PERMANENT  AND   THE    TRANSIENT.     205 

and  accurately  express  the  spirit  of  the  new  covenant. 
The  law  of  God  shall  be  written  by  Hira  in  his  people's 
hearts.  He  will  inspire  his  Church  with  the  desire  to 
please  Him.  That  Church  shall  be  a  willing  witness  to 
the  world  for  Hira.  She  will  not  merely  testify  to  the 
abstract  worth  of  morality  by  her  consistent  scrupulous- 
ness. She  will  aim  at  the  purest  living  to  please  Him. 
She  will  not  merely  exemplif}'  what  all  men,  even  in- 
fidels and  heathen,  approve,  the  beauty  of  compassion, 
nnselfishness,  benevolence.  She  will  imitate  his  tran- 
scendent charity,  yet  not  for  abstract  charity's  sake,  but 
to  please  Him.  And  above  all  else  she  will  witness  to 
the  world  and  call  the  world  to  witness,  that  He  is  more 
than  holy  and  compassionate.  He  is  the  Lord,  —  the 
Lord  of  all,  and  her  Lord. 

This  should  have  been  Israel's  testimony  expressed  in 
keeping  his  Sabbath,  for  that  was  appointed  to  be  the 
public  profession  of  loyalty  to  his  covenant  God.  But  it 
was  also  a  civic  regulation,  a  strictly  defined  statute,  an 
ordinance  maintained  by  the  sword.  Whether  it  came 
from  the  heart  or  not,  obedience  was  enforced  under  the 
supreme  penalty.  The  covenant  was  put  on  them,  not 
freely  taken  by  them.  The  husbandman  thrust  the  seeds 
of  heart  religion  into  the  unsoliciting,  if  not  reluctant, 
soil.  Under  the  new  covenant  they  sprang  up  in  vigor- 
ous, spontaneous  growth.  Before  a  new  campaign  the 
soldiers  of  ancient  Rome  marched  into  the  Forum  to  take 
again  their  military  oath.  But  it  was  no  matter  of  choice 
with  them.  It  was  death  to  refuse.  So  with  the  Israel- 
ite. He  had  no  choice.  God  imposed  on  him  the 
statute.  Not  so  with  the  Church.  Her  Lord  left  her  so 
that  she  must  show  to  the  world  what  she  has  made  evi- 
dent to  this  day,  that  she  kept  his  day  because  she  could 
not  help  it ;  because  she  loved  Him ;  because  she  chose, 
and  could  not  help  choosing,  to  show  her  loyalty  to 
Him.    * 


206      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

C.  Finally,  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  expressed  no  relation 
between  those  blessed  among  "  all  nations "  and  the 
promised  "  Seed  "  who  blessed  thera.  The  seventh  day 
received  under  Moses  new  and  marked  characteristics. 
These  changes  were  authorized  by  God,  but  were  intro- 
duced, nevertheless,  by  Moses,  so  that  the  day  is  named 
with  propriety  after  him.  It  is  the  Mosaic  Sabbath. 
Could  the  Son,  in  whose  Father's  house  Moses  was  but 
a  servant,  —  could  the  Prophet,  to  whom  Moses  himself 
referred  Israel,  take  for  his  day  one  that  was  character- 
ized by  his  predecessor  and  inferior?  Could  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  promise,  before  which  the  Mosaic  legislation, 
according  to  its  own  principles,  shriveled  and  fell  like  pet- 
als from  the  swelling  fruit,  —  could  that  realized  promise 
be  symbolized  by  a  day  which  already  symbolized  the  de- 
funct statute  ? 

How  that  former  day  pales  in  the  effulgence  of  the 
resurrection  morning  !  Where,  in  all  that  is  known  of 
the  histor}^  of  man,  where  in  all  that  is  known  of  God,  is 
there  an  event  at  once  so  great  in  its  own  elements,  so 
important  as  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine  to  man,  so 
transcendent  in  its  relation  to  man's  happiness  and  hope  ! 
How  could  it  be  possible  that  Christ's  redeemed  should 
live  in  slavery  to  the  day  He  spent  in  the  tomb  and 
neglect  the  day  of  his  rising  I  That  would  have  proved 
them  less  than  men  as  well  as  less  than  Christians.  That 
some  for  a  time  should  have  carried  the  old  chain  was 
not  strange.  But  they  carried  it  as  a  chain  which  they 
did  not  love  but  did  not  quite  dare  to  drop.  Their  joy, 
their  hope,  their  heart,  was  in  tiie  next  day,  the  first  day, 
the  Lord's  Day,  which  they  and  all  the  Church  kept  from 
the  Resurrection.  The  seventh  day,  whatever  it  repre- 
sented, gradually  faded  and  was  forgotten.  The  day  of 
the  Lord's  rising  was  the  one  day  for  the  hopes  of  man. 
It  and  no  other  could  possibly  be  the  Lord's  Day. 


STUDY  VIIT. 

THE   FOURTH    C0MMA:SDMENT. 

"  The  word  of  the  Lord  endureth  forever." —  1  Pet.  i.  2.5  ;  Isaiah  xl.  8. 

Moses  died.  For  fifteeen  centuries  bis  laws  were  par- 
tially and  defectively  observed.  But  over  all  tbe  way- 
wardness of  tbe  cbosen  race  brooded  tbe  Provi- 

Aets4:2S. 

dence  of  God,  to  accomplisb  wbatsoever  bis 
band  and  bis  counsel  determined  before.  Of  all  tbose 
laws  not  a  jot  or  a  tittle  was  lost.  In  tbe  fullness  of  time 
came  tbe  Promised  Seed,  tbe  antitypic  Lawgiver,  tbe 
Messiab,  Cbrist,  anointed  witb  tbe  Spirit,  tbrougb  wbom 
He  establisbed  tbe  new  covenant  in  tbe  bearts  of  bis  peo- 
ple. Tbe  object  lessons  of  tbe  old  discipline  became  tbe 
intuitive  principles  and  perceptions  of  tbe  new  vocation. 
All  tbose  specifications  of  statute,  forms  of  ritual,  func- 
tions of  duty,  about  to  vanisb  like  fading  petals,  left  be- 
hind tbem  ripening  fruit  in  which,  their  vitality  survived. 
Not  only  was  tbe  fruit  organically  derived  from  tbe  blos- 
som ;  its  life  was  identical  witb  tbe  life  of  tbe  blossom. 
That  life  was  tbe  thought  of  God  ;  and  this  thought  was 
given  to  man  in  definite  words  from  Sinai.  In  tbe  fore- 
going Studies,  tbe  preparation  for  tbe  Christian  sacred 
day,  and  the  prophecy,  obscure  then,  but  evident  now, 
of  its  relation  to  tbe  older  day,  of  its  place  in  the  week, 
and  of  its  practical  featui'es,  have  been  examined  as  they 
appear  in  the  Mosaic  legislation.  A  leaf,  as  such,  serves 
only  the  ends  of  leaf  structure,  ripens  and  dies  a  leaf. 
By  the  power  of  God  modifications  are  wrought  in  tbe 


208        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

leaf  and  it  becomes  a  petal.  By  the  same  power  other 
petals  are  grouped  around  it  and  a  blossom  is  formed. 
By  the  same  power  other  modifications  of  the  leaf  be- 
come stamens,  pistils,  and  other  parts  of  the  blossom.  By 
the  same  power  fruit  is  prepared  and  prophesied  through 
the  blossom  organism,  and  when  the  fruit  develops  the 
blossom  dies.  But  the  fruit  matures  along  with  the 
original  leaves,  the  iinchanged  expression  of  the  life  of 
the  tree,  the  medium  by  which  the  bond  is  formed  be- 
tween the  earth-bound  roots  where  the  sap  is  elaborated 
and  the  air  and  the  sunlight  of  heaven  thi-ougli  whicli  it 
receives  power  to  bear  fruit.  The  perennial  week,  defined 
and  constituted  by  its  sacred  da}^,  is  God's  appointed 
clothing  for  the  many-branched  tree  of  human  faith. 
While  jNloses  was  the  gardener,  the  modifications  were 
introduced  by  which  plain  leaves  became  a  blossom,  and 
the  old  sacred  day  became  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  with  its 
sabbatic  system.  Then  in  due  time  came  the  garden- 
er's Lord  ;  in  his  day  the  fruit  appeared.  Then  the  blos- 
soms withered.  The  Mosaic  modifications  disappeared. 
Only  the  perennial  week  remained,  like  leafage  embos- 
oming the  Lord's  fruit,  —  the  Lord'.s  Day.  The  rest  or- 
dained under  Moses  now  ceased  to  be  enforced  by  the 
state's  authority.  The  great  s^^stem  of  associated  Sab- 
baths arranged  under  him  now  ceased  to  be  regarded. 
The  divorce  then  effected  between  the  Sabbath  and 
the  Sacrifice  ^  was  now  annulled,  and  their  everlasting 
marriage  proclaimed.  But  the  vitality,  the  Divine 
thought  inspiring  each  one  of  the  Mosaic  innovations, 
survived  and  passed  on  to  their  fruit.  Tiie  sabbath  rest 
provided  for  the  Sabbatic  convocation  out  of  which  grew 
the  synagogue.  Its  fruit  is  the  social  worship  of  the 
Lord's  Day.     The  sabbatic  system  provided  for  an  ex- 

1  The  sacrificial  feast  has  a  place  in  the  Lord's  kingdom.    See 
Rev.  xix.  t). 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  209 

perience  of  the  ideal  administration  of  society  under  di- 
vine rule,  as  contrasted  with  all  godless  administrations.^ 
Its  fruit  is  tliat  fundamental  conception  of  what  Christian 
society  ought  to  be  which  is  now  the  common  property 
of  all  believers  and  ^  of  many  unbelievers.  The  sab- 
batic separation  from  sacrifice  provided  for  a  clear  percep- 
tion of  the  distinction  between  the  means  of  reconcilia- 
tion to  God  and  the  state  of  reconciliation  and  blessedness 
under  his  holy  sway.  Its  fruit  is  the  grateful  remem- 
brance of  our  Lord's  sacrifice  pervading  all  the  believers' 
joy  fulness,  and  finding  most  tender,  most  spiritual  expres- 
sion on  the  Lord's  Day  in  the  sacrificial  meal  instituted 
by  our  Lord,  wherein  we  partake  of  his  sacrifice,  in  the 
Lord's  Supper. 

But  the  Lord's  Day  is  t\\Q  first  day  of  the  week  and  the 
original  ^  sacred  day  was  the  seventh  day  of  the  week. 
So  there  was  a  threefold  preparation  and  prophecy  in  the 
Mosaic  statutes,  in  order  that  men,  though  they  could  not 
foresee  the  change,  might  realize,  after  the  Lord  came, 
that  God  had  purposed  and  proposed  to  make  the  first 
day  the  greater  day,  and  its  period  the  grandest  age. 
The  first  item  of  the  threefold  preparation  was  the  lay- 
ing a  great  emphasis  on  the  seventh  day.  The  seventh 
month  and  the  seventh  year  echoed  and  reechoed  that 
emphasis.  Instead  of  being  known  as  the  day  when  ac- 
cess to  the  dread  locality  of  the  visible  symbols  of  Deity, 
the  so  -  called  face  of  God,  was  permitted,  —  or,  as  the 
day  on  which  his  special  dealings  with  man  might  be  ex- 
pected, whether  by  direct  communication  of  his  will,  or 
by  gracious  interposition  of  his  power,  or  by  authorizing 
some  action  in  his  name,  —  or,  as  the  day  for  the  sacri- 

1  This  fruit  has  been  very  slow  to  ripen,  but  it  is  mellow  at  last. 

2  The  fruit  of  the  sabbatic  year  was  free  to  every  one,  even  to 
strangers  and  foreigners  in  the  land.     Lev.  xxv.  6. 

8  "Original."     Gen  ii.  3. 


210        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

fice  with  its  concomitants,  —  now  it  was  to  be  known, 
apart  from  all  such  adjuncts,  simply  as  the  seventh  day  of 
the  week.  And  since  it  was  no  longer  to  be  the  special 
day  of  privileged  address  to  God,  nor  the  special  day  of 
God's  manifestation,  nor  the  day  for  sacrifice,  a  feature  en- 
tirely subordinate  previously  was  now  made  preeminent. 
This  was  the  rest  winch  gave  the  day  the  title  of  Sab- 
bath. Previously  the  exercises  of  the  day,  whatever  they 
were,  involved  more  or  less  suspension  of  ordinary  busi- 
ness. Now,  these  exercises  having  been  all  abandoned, 
and  the  old  occasions  for  suspending  labor  having  ceased, 
the  rest  was  dignified  in  being  enforced  both  by  a  divine 
command  and  a  civil  law.  Thus  an  opportunity  was 
afforded  for  the  convocation  to  develop,  until  it  should  in 
its  turn  become  the  great  feature  of  the  da}^  to  which  the 
sabbatic  rest  would  be  subordinate  and  merely  instru- 
mental. 

The  second  part  of  the  Mosaic  preparation  for  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  as  the  Lord's  Day,  consisted  in  the  ex- 
hibitioii  of  the  series  of  seventh  days  as  a  limited,  closed, 
completed  series.  Once  in  every  year,  and  once  on  the 
largest  possible  scale  within  every  full  lifetime,  the  seven- 
fold repetition  of  the  seventh  day  was  most  solemnly  em- 
phasized as  the  end  of  the  series.  This  emphasis  was 
heightened  by  repi'esenting  the  series  as  beginning  with 
the  anniversary  of  the  nation's  birth,  the  Passover.  All 
the  peculiarities  of  their  national  Sabbatha  were  intro- 
duced immediately  after  that  great  event.  Sacrifice  had 
Ex.  5:1-3-  'dready  been  forced  into  desuetude.  INIoses  did 
^  ■  ^' •  not  allow  it  to  be  reestablished.     He  asked  per- 

mission of  Pharaoh  to  go  into  the  wilderness  in  order  to 
offer  it,  but  we  read  of  no  altar-smoke  until  the  separate 
sacrificial  system,  distinct  from  the  Sabbath,  had  been  or- 
dained. We  do  find,  however,  that  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity and  before  the  plain  in  front  of  Sinai  was  reached, 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  211 

he  did  enforce  the  sabbatic  rest.  Thus  every  year  the 
IsraeUte  was  reminded  that  the  series  of  seventh  days, 
begun  at  the  beginning  of  his  nation,  was  to  run  on  for 
a  fixed  and  certain  period  and  stop.  The  object  lesson 
thus  given  was  on  the  scale  of  days,  and  it  was  repeated 
on  the  scale  of  years.  They,  like  the  days,  were  to  be 
measured  by  weeks,  and  each  seventh  in  order  was  to  be 
a  Sabbath.  But  they  did  not  run  in  indefinite  continu- 
ance. They  were  counted  in  definite  closed  series,  all  of 
the  same  length.  The  Israelite  might  not  be  able  to  fore- 
see what  could  explain  this  riddle.  But  the  Christian 
should  not  fail  to  thank  his  Heavenly  Father  for  this  evi- 
dence of  the  unity  of  his  plans. 

The  third  part  of  this  preparation  and  prophecy  set 
before  Israel,  but  less  perhaps  for  himself  than  for  us, 
was  the  representation  of  the  inauguration  of  a  new  pe- 
riod, after  the  closed  sei-ies  of  seventh  days,  by  a  greater 
Sabbath  on  the  first  day  of  the  succeeding  week.  All 
the  men  of  the  nation  were  strenuously  commanded  to 
attend  the  feast  of  Weeks.  As  the  feast  fell  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  all  were  obliged  to  be  in  attendance  on 
the  sixth  day  of  the  previous  week,  so  as  to  rest  over  the 
Sabbath.  Thus  the  whole  nation  were  brought  together 
every  year  to  observe  the  last  of  the  closed  series  of 
seventh  days  Sabbaths,  and  a  contrasted  Sabbath  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week  succeeding  it.  Both  Sabbaths  were 
arbitrarily  ordained  by  the  fiat  of  God,  not  suggested  or 
occasioned  by  any  event  in  the  history  of  the  people. 
But  the  Sabbath  of  the  limited  period  was  coupled  with 
the  revealed  statement  of  God's  originating  Fatherhood. 
The  first  day  Sabbath  opening  the  week  after  the  limited 
period  pointed  to  some  event  in  the  future.  All  refer- 
ence in  it  to  the  giving  of  the  ten  Sinaitic  words  was 
suppressed,  though  the  time  corresponded.  It  was  al- 
lowed to  be  known  only  as  a  token  of  the  completion  of 


212      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  full  series  of  the  Mosaic  seven  days,  evidently  signi- 
fying, that  when  that  dispensation  was  really  completed, 
its  antitype  would  be  found  in  a  divine  manifestation 
greater  than  that  of  Sinai,  —  the  day  of  a  better  cove- 
nant. But  while,  on  the  one  hand,  Pentecost  was  thus 
the  greater  Sabbath,  as  being  more  completely  and  abso- 
lutely a  personal  command  of  God  than  the  weekly  Sab- 
bath, standing  simply  upon  his  word  of  arbitrary  author- 
ity, without  any  reason  or  occasion  for  it  being  unfolded 
from  his  omniscient  wisdom  and  made  known  as  yet  to 
men,  —  so,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  practical  experience 
of  men  it  was  the  greater  day.  It  was  the  festival  day. 
For  it  the  tribes  had  gathered  at  the  sanctuary.  The 
previous  Sabbath  found  them  there  simply  because  it 
preceded  the  festival.  On  that  Sabbath  every  one  looked 
forward  to  the  festival.  The  festival  day  also  was  a 
Sabbath.  But  it  was  a  Sabbath  without  the  restriction 
of  the  seventh  day.  Both  Sabbaths  were  celebrated  by 
convocations.  But  the  festival  Sabbath  added  to  the 
convocation  the  sacrificial  feast. 

The  perspective  in  the  sabbatic  system  also  entered 
into  this  part  of  the  preparation.  There  was  a  continual 
enlargement  in  his  view  as  the  Israelite  looked  upon  his 
Sabbaths.  Step  by  step  they  grew,  until,  instead  of 
reaching  from  week  to  week,  the  largest  step  touched 
the  land  but  once  in  a  lifetime.  When  upon  the  scale  of 
years,  as  upon  the  scale  of  days,  the  series  of  seventh  day 
Sabbaths  appeared  as  finished,  closed,  and  limited,  then 
the  greatest  Sabbath  of  all,  the  greatest  institution  of 
all,  opened  the  new  series  on  the  first  day  of  the  new 
week. 

In  the  practical  features  of  the  sabbatic  system,  —  the 
ordinary  experience  of  men  under  it  as  a  part  of  their  na- 
tional constitution,  —  there  was  a  similar  preparation  and 
prophecy  in  regard  to  the  practical   experience  of   the 


THE  FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  213 

Lord's  cliscijjles  on  the  Lord's  Day.  That  practical  expe- 
rience under  the  old  system  may  be  described  in  a  con- 
densed form  as  an  experience  in  regard  to  land,  an  expe- 
rience in  regard  to  prescribed  repetition  and  routine,  and 
an  experience  as  to  direct  profession  of  loyalty  to  God. 

The  whole  system  rested  upon  the  limited  national 
territory  and  bore  upon  its  tillage.  But  its  practical  ef- 
fect was  to  foster  the  strongest  feeling  of  national 
brotherhood.  It  eliminated  from  the  farmer's  life  the 
narrowness,  the  local  bigotry,  the  stolidity  which  isola- 
tion is  wont  to  produce.  One  day  in  seven  was  secured 
to  every  village  for  social  intercourse.  To  the  humblest 
slave,  as  much  as  to  the  village  elders,  that  day  was  ab- 
solutely free  and  genial.  The  ter-annual  journeys  to  the 
festivals  added  something,  though  perhaps  not  much, 
since  the  village  parties  would  be  apt  to  keep  together 
all  through  the  trip.  But  the  sabbatic  year  broke  up 
the  farmer's  seclusion  altogether.  In  other  lands  the 
peasantry  were  never  loosened  from  the  soil  except  for 
military  sei-vice  or  for  slavery.  The  military  service  was 
an  alternation  of  privation  and  debauch.  Slavery  filled 
the  great  cities  of  antiquity  with  monuments  that  amaze 
even  the  nineteenth  century.  But  it  raised  those  monu- 
ments out  of  a  weltering  mass  of  human  misery,  bestial- 
ity, and  blood  so  horrible  that  this  nineteenth  century 
loathes  to  consider  it.  The  Israelite  went  out  among  his 
brethren  a  free  man.  He  was  even  released  from  debt. 
His  labor  was  available  for  all  the  industries  of  city  life, 
or  for  any  great  national  undertaking.  But  it  was  free 
labor.  He  naturally  sought  the  larger  cities  and  towns, 
where  the  greatest  variety  of  occupation  could  be  found. 
There,  in  bazaars  and  streets  and  schools,  he  might  be- 
come much  more  than  a  farmer,  a  villager,  or  even  a 
tribesman,  —  an  Israelite.  All  his  Sabbath  law  was  land 
law,  and  as  land  law  it  fostered  the  sense  of  common 
brotherhood,  joint  tenants  in  their  Father's  land. 


214        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

As  the  old  Sabbath  law  was  limited  to  the  Israelite  ter- 
ritory, so  its  brotherhood  was  limited  to  the  Israelite  na- 
tion. Bat  as  the  certificate  of  God's  will  concerning  his 
children  it  reached  to  all  who  might  become  his  children 
even  by  adoption.  Tlierefore,  when  the  old  land-bound 
Sabbath  passed  into  the  world-wide  Lord's  Day,  it  girdled 
the  earth  with  universal  brotherhood  in  the  Lord.  In 
whatever  strange  land,  of  whatever  strange  tongue,  the 
believer  now  joins  in  that  day's  w^orshiping  assembly, 
the  sense  of  brotherhood  glows  within  him.  Over  all 
the  world,  from  the  western  skirts  of  the  Pacific  around 
with  the  sun  to  its  starting-point,  that  day,  dotting  the 
whole  globe  with  gatherings  in  the  name  of  our  Lord, 
busied  alike  in  prayer  and  praise  and  promise  in  his 
name,  makes  a  testimony  to  the  unity  and  brotherhood 
of  Christian  faith  which  no  man,  without  willfulness,  can 
gainsay. 

A  second  practical  experience,  under  the  old  sabbatic 
system,  was  incessant  repetition  and  routine.  It  was  in 
many  respects  a  drill.  It  was  educational.  It  was  an 
apprenticeship.  The  people  w^ere  exercised  so  as  to  be- 
come perfectly  versed  and  familiar  with  all  its  details. 
But,  although  there  was  a  certain  immediate  benefit  in 
all  this  exercise,  the  aim  was  something  vastly  more. 
Routine  and  repetition  are  useful  so  long  as  thej^  are  pi*e- 
parative,  and  no  longer.  There  is  an  unflagging  interest 
in  the  drill  so  long  as  facility  is  being  acquired.  After 
that  the  drill  becomes  a  dead,  tedious  monotony.  Edu- 
cation and  training  must  necessarily  precede  discretion. 
When  the  fitness  for  free  and  responsible  volition  is  ac- 
quired, the  education  and  training  are  ended.  Plainly 
enough  to  our  retrospect,  the  education  and  training  and 
drill  under  the  old  dispensation  were  designed  to  fit  be- 
lieving men  for  voluntary  action  under  the  new.  The 
proper  expectations  had  to  be  awakened ;  the  proper  as- 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  215 

sociations  had  to  be  fonned  ;  the  proper  sense  of  respon- 
sibility had  to  be  established.  The  law  compelled  faith- 
ful Israelites  to  practice  that  which  should  cause  them 
to  associate  the  Sabbath  with  God's  ideal  administration 
of  society  ;  to  expect  that  administration,  organized  on 
an  unlimited  scale,  and  continuing  for  an  unmeasured 
time  in  the  future;  to  expect  with  it  the  subjection  of 
all  men  to  God's  law,  the  entire  renovation  of  society, 
and  the  removal  of  every  indignity,  taint,  and  curse 
from  God's  people,  and  to  feel  themselves  allied,  and 
more  than  allied,  —  combined  with  all  other  members  of 
his  people  in  the  execution  of  his  plans.  But  they  had 
no  initiative,  no  propaganda.  The  whole  of  their  polity 
was  a  trust,  which  they  were  simply  to  preserve.  It  was 
a  lesson  which  they  were  not  to  go  beyond,  but  to  learn 
thoroughly,  word  by  word  and  thought  by  thought.  But 
their  successors  were  to  carry  forward  a  great  enterprise. 
Much  of  its  conduct  was  left  to  their  discretion.  They 
were  emancipated  from  the  routine  to  test  their  training 
in  a  great  struggle.  Confident  that  the  kingdom  of  their 
Lord  would  be  triumphant,  and  knowing  what  that  king- 
dom meant  for  man,  they  were  put  under  responsibility, 
each  one  in  connection  with  every  other  one,  with  every 
division  of  the  Church,  and  with  the  whole  Church,  to 
take  an  intelligent,  energetic,  personal,  and  cooperative 
part  in  the  achievement  of  that  kingdom. 

A  third  practical  experience  under  the  old  system  was 
the  direct  profession  of  loyalty  to  God.  For  this  the 
weekly  Sabbath  was  made  the  seal.^  But  all  through 
the  system  the  authority  of  God  was  directly  felt  and  di- 
rectly acknowledged.  That  authority  rested  in  so  many 
points  upon  both  the  tillage  and  the  tenure  of  land,  that 
no  one,  it  would  seem,  could  possibly  obey  the  law  as  a 

^  Lack  of  personal  presence  of  royalty  supplied  by  Sabbath,  Study 
v.,  page  111. 


216      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

matter  of  custom  and  routine  without  having  brought 
home  to  himself  a  vivid  sense  of  God's  personal  prerog- 
ative. And  yet  obedience  was  perfunctory^  and  external. 
No  one  could  escape  the  pressure  of  the  demand  for  alle- 
giance. Willingness  or  unwillingness  was  not  considered. 
The  drafted  conscript,  who  refuses  to  take  the  military- 
oath,  is  punished  like  the  traitor  of  the  battle-field.  The 
volunteer  stands  on  a  higher  plane.  He  is  doubly  conse- 
crated, not  only  by  the  soldier's  sacrament,  but  also  by 
his  own  free-will  devotion.  The  old  system  did  not  pro- 
vide for  volunteers.  Every  one  was  called.  He  who  did 
not  respond,  who  did  not  testify  his  loyalty  by  the  due 
sabbatic  observance,  was  condemned  to  death.  Doing  it 
ever  so  grudgingly,  he  was  accepted  if  he  did  it  strictly. 
Grudgingly  or  heartily,  do  it  he  must,  or  the  very  sub- 
stance of  the  altar  of  sacrifice  turned  against  him  in  an 
avalanche  of  avenging  stones. 

And  yet  in  every  part  of  the  system  birthright  was 
exalted.    Israel  was  not  a  slave.    He  was  God's 

Gal.  4 :  1. 

son.  If  he  was  subjected  like  a  servant  to 
strict  discipline,  it  was  because  he  was  immature.  He 
was  a  child.  As  such  he  could  not  comprehend  the 
Father's  plans  and  purposes,  and  therefore  he  could  not 
share  them.  When  the  age  of  discipline  was  passed, 
when  the  capacity  to  share  in  the  Father's  confidence 
was  attained,  then  the  son's  duty  would  have  been  cari- 
ca,tured  if  he  had  rendered  no  more  than  blind  obedience, 
if  he  did  not  render  voluntary  and  instinctive  coopera- 
tion.i  God  required  from  his  people  what  they  were 
capable  of  giving  Him  :  in  the  earlier  time,  strict  and 
John  4:  23,  Painstaking  obcdieuce  ;  in  the  after  age,  obedi- 
^^'  ence  in  spirit  and  in  truth.     So  the  new  day 

became,  in  a  far  higher  sense  than  the  old,  a  seal  of  loy- 
al'^^v      Without  one  recorded  word  of  specific  command 
"  Cooperation."    1  Cor.  iii.  9  ;  2  Cor.  vi.  1. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  217 

for  its  observance,  —  without  one  item  of  prescribed  ritual 
for  its  exercises,  —  without  one  term  of  definition  for  its 
limits,  —  it  was  the  free  spontaneous  homage  of  a  loyalty 
that  went  beyond  obedience,  that  clothed  obedience  with 
intelligent  cooperation,  and  crowned  devotion  with  an- 
ticipation of  a  triumph.  The  Church  felt  in  her  heart 
what  was  due  to  her  Lord.  She  had  inherited  from  her 
mother  in  Judea  the  preparation  for  his  day  and  its 
prophecy.  When  her  Lord,  by  his  resurrection,  by  his 
manifestation  and  abstention,  and  by  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  according  to  his  promise,  signified  his  as- 
sumption of  the  first  day  of  the  week  for  his  day,  the 
Church  at  once  and  forever  adopted  it.  As  she  did  not 
wait  for  command,  so  likewise  she  did  not  stop  to  reason 
out  analogies.  Through  the  teaching  of  her  Lord,  and 
of  the  holy  Spirit  whom  He  sent,  she  received  the  truth 
in  her  heart,  and  acted  upon  it.  She  did  not  immedi- 
ately grasp  it  with  her  intellect.  To  that  end  the  Spirit 
was  to  lead  her  through  the  ages.  But  what  she  did  not 
at  once  fully  understand,  she  distinctly  felt.  Without, 
perhaps,  any  thought  of  a  comparison,  she  set  the  Lord's 
Day  beside  the  old  Sabbath,  so  much  as  was  left  of  it. 
Beside  the  constrained  and  distorted  ^  profession,  on  that 
day,  of  a  loyalty  that  was  in  nature  servile  and  in  prac- 
tice a  homage  to  Judaism  rather  than  to  God,  —  was  set 
on  this  day  the  free,  intuitive  outburst  of  a  loyalty  that 
by  its  nature,  and  by  all  the  circumstances  of  its  mani- 
festation, came,  and  could  come  only  from  the  heart,  and 
that  was  addressed  without  division  or  deviation  to  the 
risen  Redeemer,  the  divine  Lord.  The  vitality  of  the 
day  which  had  sealed  the  old  covenant  passed  over  into 
the  day  which  sealed  the  new. 

That  vital  principle,  that  thought  of  God  which  un- 
derlay the  possibility  of  union  between  God  and  man, 
1  "  Distorted."     See  Study  VIL,  pp.  196-198. 


218       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

was  not  given  to  the  world  by  any  human   mediation. 

Not   even   to   Moses   was   this  office  confided : 

"  God  spake  all  these  words." 
It  is  plain  enough  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  Decalogue  and  the  whole  bod}^  of  Mosaic  legis- 
lation. The  Decalogue  is  unique.  There  is  nothing  like 
it  in  the  history  of  man.  Nothing  that  can  be  compai'ed 
to  it  has  ever  been  imagined  by  man.  The  external  cir- 
cumstances, that  which  we  may  call  the  framing  of  the 
Decalogue,  were  themselves  unique.  Such  were  the  phys- 
ical isolation  of  the  whole  nation  from  all  other  peoples, 
as  they  were  gathered  into  the  large  yet  limited  amphi- 
theatre, walled  by  towering  granite,  facing  Sinai ;  the  un- 
exampled display  of  natural  phenomena,^  such  as  in  their 
ordinary  occurrence  have  always  appalled  the  human 
mind ;  the  three  days'  preparation,  special,  personal,  pro- 
longed ;  and  the  utterance  of  words  which  it  strained 
human  endurance  to  hear,  as  they  rose  above  the  trum- 
peting of  the  whirlwind,  out  of  the  central  invisibility 
whose  burning  "2  retinue  overwhelmed  all  consciousness  of 
mortal  potency,  and  excluded  all  impressions  except  that 
of  the  presence  and  personal  address  of  God. 

The  explicitness  of  these  words  was  no  less  unique. 

^  J'robably  the  elders  (priests  as  yet)  established  a  patrol  round 
the  base  of  the  mountain,  perhaps  with  something  like  a  fence  or 
barrier.  The  thick  darkness  seems  to  liave  enveloped  the  congre- 
gation, while  the  mountain  glowed  and  quivered  with  flame,  and  the 
dense  smoke  above  it  shut  out  the  liglit  of  day.  The  inspii-ed  state- 
ments hardly  warrant  the  assumption  of  volcanic  action,  or  the  ex- 
perience of  an  earthquake  shock  on  the  plain  where  the  people  stood. 
They  saw  the  mountain  shake,  but  that  appearance  was  rather  an 
incident  to  the  fact  that  it  was  enveloped  in  flame.  Ex.  xix.  10-25 ; 
XX.  18,  19  ;  Deut.  iv.  11,  12,  15  ;  v.  4,  5,  22-26;  Heb.  xii.  18-21. 

2  "Burning."  Comp.  Ps.  civ.  4;  Ileb.  i.  7;  Acts  vii.  53.  Also 
"  seraph,"  aliunde,  Heb.  ii.  2,  cannot  refer  to  the  Decalogue,  but 
only  to  God's  use  of  messengers  to  report  and  rehearse  his  mes- 
sa<res. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  219 

God's  thought  may  be  read  in  all  nature,  and  equally  in 
his  moral  government,  but  only  a  little  at  a  time.  It  is 
as  if  each  letter  "were  composed  of  innumerable  strokes, 
and  each  word  of  numberless  letters,  so  that  while  the 
scroll  stretched  from  dawn  to  dusk,  the  whole  of  a  sen- 
tence was  never  in  view  at  once.  We  catch  glimpses  of 
the  meaning,  but  we  cannot  grasp  it  entirely.  These 
words  are  ten.     They  are  as  simple  as  short. 

God's  thought  may  likewise  be  read  in  all  the  insti- 
tutions which  He,  through  his  servant  Moses,  ordained, 
but  only  very  partially  and  imperfectly  in  these  alone. 
Their  meaning  depends  upon  that  which  is  before  and 
after  them.  By  themselves  they  present  a  great  com- 
plex enigma,  insoluble  until  the  antecedent  promise  to 
Abraham  was  fulfilled  in  Christ.  These  ten  words  are 
complete  and  independent.  For  their  comprehension,^ 
be  it  most  reverently  said,  neither  Abraham  nor  Christ 
was  needed.  No  man  does  or  can  fail  to  understand  who 
hears  them.  From  beginning  to  end,  each  separate  one 
of  the  ten  addresses  something  in  the  consciousness  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  of  every  age,  and  every 
clime,  and  Qv&vy  grade. 

The  treatment  of  these  words  was   equally  singular. 
Engraved  by  the  special  exertion  of  Omnipo-  ex.  3i:i8; 
tence  on  slabs  of  rock,  they  were  designed  to  32 '-.  I6 ; ' 
be  imperishable.      Placed  by  divine  command  1-4. ' 
in  the  centre  of  the  most  sacred  of  all  symbolic  f,^?,^^^^" 

-'        _  21 ;  Deut. 

objects,  in  the  most  reverend  and  awful  situa-  10 :  5. 
tion,  within  the  purview  of  divine  worship,  beneath  the 
mercy-seat,  within  the  ark,  in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  they 
were  thus  certified  by  God,  through  his  ritual  and  sym- 
bolism and  object  lessons,  as  the  very  centre  and  founda- 

^  "  Comprehension."  That  is,  for  a  clear  and  adequate  compre- 
hension. Our  Lord  unfolded  larger  apjilication,  and  there  are  depths 
of  meaning  for  believers  even  to  fathom. 


220      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

tion  of  all  that  relates  to  the  bond  between  man  and  his 
Maker,  which  we  call  religion. 

In  the  light  of  all  these  facts,  the  titles  given  to  the 
Decalogue  by  God,  in  the  various  passages  in  which  ref- 
erence is  made  to  it  in  the  general  legislation,  are  very 
important.  Taken  together  they  also  are  unique.  Noth- 
ing else  in  all  the  circle  of  symbol,  or  service,  or  prophecy, 
bears  these  two  titles.  They  are  "covenant"  and  "tes- 
timony." 1  Both  words  are  not  uncommon.  But  to  only 
one  thing  are  both  applied  in  common.  The  Decalogue 
alone  is  both  covenant  and  testimony.^ 

^  It  is  true  that  there  is  some  question  among  scholars  as  to  the 
best  translation  of  "  'eduth,"  rendered  in  our  version  "testimony." 
But  the  matter  in  dispute  is  really  insignificant.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion that  the  word  means  something  strongly  repeated,  earnestly 
affirmed,  call  it  precept,  protest,  testimony,  or  declaration.  Deut. 
xxxi.  26,  27,  harmonizes  with- the  translation  "testimony,"  but  does 
not  necessarily  confirm  it,  because  there  was  a  difference  between 
the  offices  of  the  "Book  of  the  Law"  (the  Pentateuch  probably) 
and  the  two  tables.  But  for  every  scholar  who  is  content  to  inter- 
pret Scripture  by  Scripture,  the  question  is  settled  in  Rev.  xv.  5. 
The  word  naprvpiov  there  used  is  the  very  word  used  by  the  Septu- 
agint  to  translate  'eduth  when  referring  to  the  Ten  Commandments. 

2  Ex.  xix.  5,  the  people  were  commanded  to  prepare  for  the  "  cov- 
enant "  to  be  given  on  the  third  day.  Ex.  xxxiv.  27,  28,  and  Deut. 
iv.  13,  the  "  ten  words  "  are  specifically  described  as  "  the  covenant." 
In  the  first  passage  a  reason  is  given.  Deut.  ix.  9,  11,  the  two 
tables  of  stone  are  described  as  the  covenant.  Numb.  x.  33  ;  Deut. 
x.  8  ;  xxxi.  7,  25,  26,  the  ark  is  "  the  ark  of  the  covenant." 

Ex.  XXV.  16,  21,  command  to  put  "the  testimony"  into  the  ark  ; 
neither  the  ark  nor  the  stone  tables  were  yet  in  existence.  In  view 
of  this  purpose  the  ai-k  was  called  then  (xxv.  22)  "  the  ai-k  of  the 
testimony."  The  same  again,  before  its  construction,  in  Ex.  xxxi.  7. 
Exod  xxxi.  18,  xxxii.  15,  tlie  tables  first  given  to  Moses  are  called 
the  "  tables  of  testimony;  "  and  xxxiv.  29,  the  second  set  are  called 
the  same.  Ex.  xxxviii.  21;  Numb.  i.  50,  53,  the  tabernacle  is  called 
the  tabernacle  of  testimony. 

Heb.  ix.  4.  "  The  ark  of  the  covenant  overlaid  round  about  with 
gold,  wherein  was  the  golden  pot  that  had  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod 
that  budded,  and  the  tables  of  the  covenant." 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  221 

Scripture  is  always  to  be  compared  with  Scripture. 
There  is  nothing  accidental  in  the  Word  of  God.  These 
two  names  for  the  Decalogue  must  be  taken  to  illustrate 
aud  explain  each  other.  The  testimony  was  a  declara- 
tion from  God  of  something  on  which  his  covenant  must 
rest.  ■  The  covenant  was  an  assurance  from  God  to  that 
■which  answered  his  testimony.  The  substance  or  matter 
of  the  Decalogue,  as  between  God  and  mankind,  was 
God's  testimony  —  his  most  emphatic,  solemn,  and  unique 
declaration.  As  between  God  and  those  who  reciprocate 
his  declaration  and  conform  to  its  substance,^  it  was  his 
covenant.  What,  then,  does  the  testimony  testify?  What 
does  the  covenant  pledge?  It  testifies  the  divine  ideal 
of  perfect  human  living.  It  pledges  divine  communion 
with  such  an  ideal  in  practice.  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy 
God."  • 

The  administrative  and  ritual  law  was  added  because 
of  transgression.    There  were  none  among  man- 
kind who  answered  to  that  ideal.     Hence,  the 
testimony,  by  itself,  cut  o£E  every  man  from  the  covenant. 

Rev.  XV.  5.  "  And  after  that  I  looked,  and,  behold,  the  temple  of 
the  tabernacle  of  the  testimony  in  heaven  was  opened."  'O  vabs  rijs 
ffKTivrjs  Tov  fiaprvplov,  is  most  naturally  the  shrine,  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
Acts  vii.  44,  "  Tabernacle  of  witness ;  "  literally  the  same,  'H  (TKr)v^ 
TOV  fxaprvpiov.  Rev.  xi.  19,  "Ark  of  his  testament,"  should  be  "Ark 
of  his  covenant."     The  same  Greek  words  as  in  Heb.  ix.  4,  ttjs 

^  "  Substance."  The  form  of  the  Decalogue  is  negative.  Our 
Lord  supplied  the  positive  complement  (Mark  xii.  28-31;  Matt. 
xxii.  26-29 ;  Luke  x.  28)  known  before  (Deut.  vi.  5  ;  Lev.  xix.  18 ; 
Luke  X.  27),  but  first  clothed  with  adequate  authority  by  himself. 
This  is  in  accordance  with  the  order  of  Scriptural  development.  The 
promise  to  Adam  and  Eve  was  negative;  to  Abraham  positive.  The 
blessing  in  the  Mosaic  sabbatic  system  was  negative  ;  in  the  Lord's 
Day,  positive.  The  whole  Mosaic  ritual  was  negative,  only  types 
and  shadows;  Christ,  the  substance,  positive  (Col.  ii.  17;  Heb. 
viii.  5  ;  ix.  1-14).  Evening  comes  before  morning  in  the  Scriptural 
day. 


222         EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

Imperfect  men  —  transgressors  —  had  to  be  dealt  with. 
Therefore,  the  ritual  and  statute  hxw  was  ordained  as  a 
schoolmaster,  to  teach  a  sinful  people  both  to 
expect  the  advent  of  a  Perfect  One,  and  to 
comprehend  how  He  would  help  them,  transgressors  as 
they  were,  to  reach  God's  ideal,  to  obtain  his  eternal 
adoption.  Israel  knew  that  those  two  stone  tables  lay 
immediately  under  the  mercy-seat.  The  Church  also 
knows  that  her  justification  is  through  the  "  righteous- 
ness" and  "obedience,"  as  well  as  through  the  sacrificial 
"  blood,^ "  of  the  perfect  One,  Jesus  Christ. 

But,  unlike  that  ritual  and  administrative  law,  the  Dec- 
alogue corresponded  perfectly  with  the  Promise.  It  was 
adapted  to  all  nations.  Not  a  tribe  of  men  is  known  who 
have  not  been  able  to  understand  the  broad  terms  of  its 
testimony,  and  to'  apply  it  to  themselves.  As  a  covenant, 
it  pledges  positive  and  absolute  blessedness  to  those  who 
conform  to  it.  And  it  relates  directly  to  the  Holy  One, 
who  did  no  sin,^  through  whom  the  blessedness  of  sancti- 
fication  and  adoption  are  brought  to  all  nations.  The 
symbolic  stones  of  the  two  tables  were  a  type  of  its  per- 
petuity. But  the  first  set  were  broken^  by  the  leader,  in 
indignation  over  his  nation's  hasty  apostasy.  The  sec- 
ond set  survived  one  captivity,^  but  vanislied  with  an- 
other. Nevertheless,  the  covenant  and  testimony  of 
God  are  eternal.  He  keeps  them  safe  in  his  heaven, 
though  his  wayward  children  lose  the  copy  He  has  given 
them  to  keep  on  earth.  In  the  vision  given  to  John,  as 
scene  after  scene  of  the  Church's  development  was  un- 
folded, twice  we  are  told  of  the  heavenly  original.    After 

1  "Righteousness,"  Rom.  v.  18;  "obedience,"  Rom.  v.  19; 
"blood,"  Rom.  V,  9  ;  Heb.  v.  9;  x.  14. 

2  "No  sin,"  1  Pet.  ii.  22, 

8  "  Broken,"  Ex.  xxxii.  19, 

4  "Captivity,"  1  Sam.  iv.  11;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  18. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  223 

the  seventh  trumpet  had  sounded,  the  temple  in  heaven 
was  opened,  and  a  glunpse  was  given  of  "  the  ark  of  his 
covenant.''^  ^  And  then,  after  the  redeemed  multitudes 
had  gathered  on  the  sea  of  crystal  fire,  to  sing  the  song 
of  jNIoses  and  of  the  Lamb,  and  just  before  the  seven  an- 
gels went  forth  with  vials  of  wrath,  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
the  temple  or  shrine  (ya6<;'),  of  the  tabernacle  of  testi- 
mony  was  opened.  From  the  shrine  of  the  testimony  ^  the 
executioners  of  judgment  against  sin  went  forth.  Both 
as  covenant  and  as  testimony,  therefore,  the  Scripture 
teaches  us  that  the  thought  of  God  lives  on  unchanged.^ 

The  Church  in  all  ages  had  conformed  to  these  pro- 
phetic Scriptures,  in  that  she  has  always  read  the  Deca- 
logue in  her  worship,  not  as  an  inspired  utterance,  not  as 
a  Mosaic  institution,  but  as  something  different  from  all 
inspired  utterances,  different  from  all  the  legislation  of 
Moses'  time,  as  something  universal  in  its  application, 
absolute   in   its  prerogative,  —  the  immediate  Word  of 

^  "Covenant,"  K.ev.  xi.  19.  So,  in  the  revision,  the  authorized 
version  has  testament,  Greek  Sta^Tj/crj. 

^  "  Testimony,"  Rev.  xv.  5.     See  note  page  221. 

8  "  Unchanged."  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  well-meant  but 
loosely  expressed  statement  about  the  reenactment  of  more  or  less  of 
the  Decalogue  in  the  New  Testament.  For  instance,  a  prominent 
pastor,  studious  and  devout  (^Sunday  School  Times,  of  Philadelphia, 
January  14,  1882),  says  of  the  fourth:  "  It  happens  to  be  the  only 
one  of  the  ten  which  is  not  repeated  nor  reenacted  in  set  terms  in 
the  New  Testament."  Now  repetition  is  one  thing,  reenactment  is 
another.  There  are  plain  enough  reasons  why  the  fourth  was  not 
repeated.  But  when  were  any  of  them  reenacted  V  Reenactment 
means  an  explicit,  formal  restatement  of  the  binding  authority  of  a 
law  as  such.  Our  Lord  never  made  such  a  statement.  He  and  his 
hearers  alike  took  it  for  granted  that  every  one  of  the  ten  was  a  living 
law.  He  expanded  and  applied  them.  He  never  professed  to  add 
to  their  authority.  He  never  rehearsed  them  as  a  whole,  He  never 
catalogued  them.  He  never  repeated  nine,  omitting  one.  There  is 
not  one  line  in  the  New  Testament  which  implies  that  the  Decalogue 
is  not  a  unit,  whole,  inseparable. 


224      EIGHT  STUDIES  OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

God.  It  is  true  that  various  opinions  concerning  it  have 
been  expressed  by  some  Christian  scholars.  But  that 
fact  is  of  very  slight  importance  compared  with  the  great 
controlling  fact  that  the  Church  has  attested  it.  Unique 
and  alone  in  the  external  circumstances  of  its  utterance, 
in  the  explicitness  of  its  language,  in  the  manner  and 
place  of  its  record,  in  the  significance  of  its  twofold  title, 
and  in  its  correspondence  to  the  Promise,  the  Decalogue 
is  equally  alone  among  all  the  words  of  the  Pentateuch, 
or  even  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  its  use  h^  the  Church. 

What,  then,  has  the  Church  meant  by  her  solemn 
repetition  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  through  all 
these  centuries  ?  or  rather  since  the  Holy  Spirit,  during 
all  these  centuries,  has  influenced  and  educated  the 
Church,  —  what  has  He  intended  to  effect  by  this  age- 
long rehearsal  of  "  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  ?  "  Has 
He  intended  that  believers  should  be  admonished  by  these 
words  to  keep  the  old  Mosaic  Sabbath,  with  or  without 
the  great  sabbatic  system?  That  the  Church  should  main- 
tain a  perpetual  mockery,  a  command  to  do  that  which 
has  become  impossible,  and  has  ceased  to  be  remembered, 
a  return  to  the  slavery  of  old  ordinances  incompatible 
with  the  blessedness  of  the  Promise  and  of  the  liberty  of 
Christ  ?  It  is  historically  certain  that  such  is  not  the 
effect  on  the  minds  of  the  great  mass  of  believers.  There 
could  be  and  there  has  been  but  one  impression  made  on 
the  common  mind  by  the  majestic  reiteration  of  this 
"  Remember."  That  is,  an  impression  that  both  sanc- 
tity and  obligation  pertain  in  some  sense  to  that  one  day 
in  seven  which  the  Church  dedicates  to  her  Lord.  If  this 
impression  has  been  made,  however  vaguely  or  even 
dimly,  on  the  mass  of  true  believers  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Spirit  and  in  consonance  with  the  voice  of 
all  Scripture,  it  cannot  be  unwarranted  to  assert  that  it 
must  be  the  impression  which  He  who  superintends  the 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  225 

Church  has  intended.  Before  the  great  body  of  Chris- 
tians there  has  been  no  contrast  between  the  seventh  day 
and  the  first.  They  have  no  thought  at  all  of  the  sev- 
enth day  as  a  sabbath,  and  tlierefore  have  never  com- 
pared a  seventh  day  sabbath  with  the  Lord's  Day.  To 
thera,  the  words  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  "  seventh 
day,"  do  not  in  the  least  suggest  a  distinction  between 
"  the  last  one  of  seven  days  "  and  simply  "  one  of  seven 
days."  In  a  word,  that  commandment  refers  to  the 
Lord's  Day  or  it  refers  to  nothing. 

It  is  impossible  to  escape  this  alternative.  But  to  the 
Christian  who  is  simply  content  to  bow  to  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  there  is  no  alternative.  The 
Scriptures  speak  of  the  covenant  and  the  testimony  as 
enduring.  With  all  the  diversities  of  interpretation  which 
believers  have  applied  to  the  Book  of  Revelation,  there 
are  none^  who  do  not  see  in  it  a  representation  of  the 
whole  or  a  part  of  the  Christian  dispensation.  It  begins 
with  the  Lamb  who  unseals  the  Book  of  God.  Down 
into  the  Christian  dispensation,  therefore,  the  old  cove- 
nant and  testimony  go,  according  to  this  Scripture.  It 
would  seem,  perhaps,  to  be  implied  that  through  this  de- 
velopment the  relation  of  the  covenant  to  the  ark,  and 
of  the  testimony  to  its  temple,  would  become  more  and 
more  manifest  to  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  itself.  The 
other  passages,  which  refer  to  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the 
Decalogue,  take  for  granted  that  its  authority  remains. 
This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  passages  where  our 
Lord  declares  its  complement  or  summary,^  and  where 
the  Apostle  Paul  refers^  to  his  utterance.  If  the  law 
were  not  a  living  law,  neither  of  these  passages  could 
have  any  meaning.     Therefore  the  Church  has  gone  on 

^  "  None."     With  insignificant  exceptions. 

2  "Summary."    Matt.  xxii.  26-29;  Mark  xii.  28-31. 

3  "  Refers."     Rom.  xiii.  10. 
»  15 


226      EIGHT  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

from  age  to  age,  applying,  though  invohintarily  or  un- 
consciousl}',  the  living  word  of  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment to  the  Lord's  Day,  whether  she  could  or  could  not 
logically  express  their  relation. 

For  there  are  two  points  in  the  verbal  form  of  the 
commandment  which  have  seemed  out  of  harmony  with 
the  Lord's  Day.  These  are  the  description  of  the  Sab- 
bath as  the  seventh  day,  and  the  strictness  of  the  injunc- 
tion to  do  no  work  therein. 

"  The  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath."  Seventh  may 
mean  the  last  of  seven,  or  one  out  of  seven.  If 
the  first  day  of  each  week  is  a  Sabbath,  it  is  the 
seventh  day  with  reference  to  the  six  other  days,  whether 
preceding  or  following,  although  with  reference  to  the 
primeval  unchanging  week  it  is  the  first  day.  The  Chris- 
tian week,  like  the  Mosaic  and  patriarchal  week,  is  com- 
posed of  six  days  and  one  sacred  day.  With  reference  to 
those  six  days  the  sacred  day  is  seventh.  The  week  is 
not  mentioned  in  the  wording  of  the  commandment. 
Logically  and  literally  the  Lord's  Day  fills  its  require- 
ment. 

But  when  joined  to  the  sabbatic  system  these  words 
did  mean  more.  In  that  system  the  emphasis  was  again 
and  again  laid  upon  seventh,  the  last  one  of  seven.  And 
all  of  the  emphasis  was  there.  There  the  Israelite  learned 
to  fix  his  thoughts  upon  the  last  day  of  the  week.  There 
he  ought  to  have  learned,  but  through  his  truancy  he  did 
not  learn,  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  was  a  greater 
Sabbath.  Emphasis  is  necessarily  a  contrast  and  an  epi- 
sode. We  ought  to  see  clearly  enough  in  our  Christian 
light,  that  the  emphasis  on  seventh  was  in  contrast  to 
first,  and  that  the  emphasis  was  on  a  limited,  fixed,  and 
completed  series  of  seventh  days ;  an  episode  succeeded 
by  an  unlimited  series  of  first  days.  The  nation  of  Israel 
itself  destroyed  that  sabbatic  system,  if  in  no  other  way, 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  227 

at  least  by  refusing  to  return  from  captivity  and  rees- 
tablish farming  in  their  ancestral  territor3^  With  a  frag- 
ment of  the  nation  in  Palestine,  Mosaic  sabbathism  could 
not  but  wither  and  die.  That  system  dead,  the  Scriptural 
emphasis  on  the  seventh  day  vanished.  The  first  day  ^ 
of  the  ■week,  apart  from  that  system,  meets  logically, 
literally,  perfectly  the  requirements  of  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment. 

"  In  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work."  What  is  meant 
by  "  not  any  work  ?  "  Is  "  not  any  work  "  the  end  or 
the  means  to  an  end  ?  If  "  not  any  work  "  is  the  means 
to  an  end,  what  is  the  end  sought  ? 

The  Mosaic  illustrations  of  the  command  represent  two 
degrees  of  meaning  as  to  "not  any  work."  In  one,  a 
hard,  grim  abstention  was  enforced  under  a  dreadful 
penalty  by  the  power  of  the  state.  In  the  other,  an  in- 
junction to  rest  from  labor  was  given,  but  no  penalty 
was  affixed.  In  the  former  class  were  the  seventh  day 
of  the  week  and  the  Day  of  Atonement.  All  the  other 
Sabbaths  belonged  to  the  second  class.  They  were  dis- 
tinguished by  a  slightly  different  form  of  the  Hebrew 
word,  Shabbathon  instead  of  Shabbath.  The  larger  Sab- 
baths, the  seventh  year,  and  the  Jubilee  belong  to  the 
same  class,  because  the  farm  work,  which  was  forbidden 
to  them,  was  regarded  as  the  national  occupation,  the 
general  pi'oductive  industry,  answering  to  the  sum  of 
diversified  industry  and  business  interlaced  in  the  web  of 
our  own  civilization. 

^  Might  not  any  day  of  the  seven  answer  for  a  sacred  day  ?  The 
Mohammedans  take  Friday.  Would  not  Friday  be  as  good  a  day 
for  Christians  if  they  should  agree  to  celebrate  on  that  day  all  that 
they  now  celebrate  on  Sunday  ?  No.  For  that  would  bring  con- 
fusion into  the  order  of  the  weeks.  Their  invariable  succession  is  a 
witness  to  God's  unchangeableness,  just  as  their  arbitrary  period  is 
a  witness  to  his  sovereignty.  Either  the  seventh  day  or  the  first  day 
serves  to  bound  the  week.  Either,  therefore,  is  adapted  to  be  the 
sacred  day  of  the  week,  but  no  other  day  can  have  this  character. 


228       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LOED'S  DAY. 

By  "  not  any  work,''  in  the  lowest  defrree,  is  therefore 
clearly  meant  the  intermission  of  ordinarj^  activity',  occu- 
pation, and  business,  precisely  of  the  work  of  the  "  bread- 
winner." According  to  the  light  thrown  on  the  Fourth 
Commandment  by  its  Scriptural  illustrations,  nothing 
less  than  this  will  meet  its  requirements. 

Does  this  degree  of  intermission  meet  those  require- 
ments fully  ?  Three  circumstances  must  be  considered 
in  the  decision  of  this  question. ^  First  :  In  the  pa- 
triarchal age  there  is  not  a  trace  of  the  strictness  im- 
posed on  Israel.  The  old  association  of  sacrifice  and 
its  social  feast  with  the  sacred  day,  is  in  contrast  with 
the  Mosaic  interdict  of  a  fire  for  household  cookery.  The 
various  acts  of  Noah  on  such  days  could  not  be  reconciled 
with  the  later  rigidity.  Second :  The  Mosaic  Sabbath 
was  to  be  observed  by  Israel  as  a  national  organization. 
The  nation,  as  such,  was  charged  with  its  maintenance. 
Strictness  in  the  enforcement  of  the  national  statutes 
was  like  strictness  in  allotting  a  nation's  taxes, —  an  offi- 
cial duty.  If  the  stringency  of  the  statutes  themselves 
plainly  served  some  national  purpose,  then  it  may  not  be 
an  essential  constituent  of  tlie  universal  •'  word  "  of  God. 
Third :  Neither  the  Christian  Church  as  a  whole,  nor  any 
considerable  part  of  her  membership,  have  attempted  a 
rigid  conformity  to  the  utmost  limit  of  the  Mosaic  strin- 
gency. If,  therefore,  that  stringency  had  an  evident  pur- 
pose of  its  own,  —  national,  subordinate  to,  yet  distinct 
from,  the  general  purpose  of  the  Sabbath,  —  it  cannot  be 
an  essential  element  in  God's  eternal  command,  but  is  in 
its  nature,  as  it  is  in  historj-,  an  episode  in  the  progress  of 
the  weeks  unknown  to  their  earlier  or  later  sacred  days. 
And  the  purpose  is  perfectly  manifest.  It  was  adapted 
to  secure  uniformity  and  universality.  Nothing  what- 
ever was  left  to  the  catalogue  of  expediencies.  The 
1  See  Study  IV.,  pp.  93-99. 


THE  FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  229 

national  law  grasped  everything  which  could  in  anywise 
be  called  work.  There  could  be  no  primd  facie  excep- 
tion. If  there  should  be  any  exception,  its  unqualified 
necessity  or  indispensable  mercy  must  be  absolutely  evi- 
dent. And  then  every  member  of  the  community  was 
reached.  The  humblest  household  drudge  and  farm-hand 
bad  a  full  share  of  the  Sabbath  secured  to  them.  Every 
soul  in  Israel  had  to  learn  that  the  Sabbath  was  a  uni- 
versal duty  and  a  universal  privilege.  As  these  were 
divine  principles  established  by  divine  authority,  they 
are  as  true  in  the  Christian  Church  as  they  were  in  the 
Hebrew  nation.  But  the  Church  learns  and  teaches  them 
in  a  different  way,  and  since  the  national  organization 
has  dissolved,  the  national  statutes  have  lost  with  it  their 
legal,  though  not  their  moral,  force. 

But,  whatever  may  be  the  practical  meaning  of  "  not 
any  work,"  a  deeper  question  arises.  Was  this  an  end  in 
itself,  or  a  means  to  an  end  beyond  itself  ?  If  the  Scrip- 
ture gave  no  hint  of  the  purpose  of  God,  the  human 
mind  could  not  be  satisfied  with"  the  presumption  that 
sabbatic  rest  was  the  end  desired.  Rest  is  good,  but  it 
is  a  negative  good.  It  is  not  good  enough  to  be  the  sole 
or  the  chief,  or  more  than  a  subordinate  end  of  such  a 
"  word  "  of  God  as  the  Fourth  Commandment.  The  law- 
ful occupation  open  for  this  day  of  "  not  any  work,"  must 
be  the  end  for  which  "  not  any  work  "  was  ordained.  So 
the  Scripture  sets  it  forth.  "  It  is  an  holy  convocation, 
ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  therein."  Seventeen  times 
this  is  repeated.  Before  there  was  any  legislation  con- 
cerning the  weekly  Sabbath,  before  Israel  had  fled  from 
Egypt,  this  law  was  promulgated  ^  in  reference  to  the 
first  and  seventh  days  of  the  Passover  Week.^    Twice  the 

1  "Promulgated."    Ex.  xii.  16. 

^  As  to  the  weekly  Sabbath,  Lev.  xxiii.  3  ;  Deut.  xvi.  8.  As  to  the 
seven  annual  Sabbaths,  Lev.  xxiii.  7,  8,  21,  24,  25,  27,  28,  35,  36  ; 
Num.  3»cviii.  18,  25,  26  ;  xxix.  1,  7,  12,  35. 


230      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

law  was  stated  as  applying  to  the  weekly  Sabbath,  and 
twice  as  applying  to  each  of  the  seven  annual  Sabbaths. 
The  conclusion  is  unavoidable.  The  convocation,^  and 
that  which  clustered  around  it,  was  the  substance  of  the 
Sabbath.  "  Not  any  work"  was  only  the  void  space  to 
be  filled  by  that  substance. 

But  for  an  authoritative  statement  of  the  end  of  Sab- 
bath keeping,  not  in  view  of  the  local  and  temporary  cir- 
cumstances of  the  nation  of  Israel  alone,  but  in  respect  to 
the  whole  sweep  of  human  conditions,  the  words  of  the 
commandment  are  precise  and  sufficient :  "  to  keep  it 
holy.2  The  core  and  essence  of  the  command  is  in  its 
first  eisht  words.  All  the  rest  is  of  the  nature  of  com- 
ment  and  emphasis.  But  the  Mosaic  legislation  (the 
Decalogue  was  immediate,  not  Mosaic)  supplies  the  il- 
lustrations which  are  the  divine  explanation  for  "  keep 
holy."  According,  then,  to  the  authoritative  commen- 
tary, the  Sabbath  may  be  kept  holy  as  to  its  sentiment, 
as  to  its  exercises,  and  as  to  its  typical  significance. 
The  holiness  in  all  these  respects  is  represented  as  tlie 
substance  of  a  bond  between  God  and  his  people.  Its 
sentiment  is  the  profession  and  seal  of  loyalty.^  Its  ex- 
ercises* are  social  address  to  Him  and  concerning  Him. 
Its  typical  significance  ^  is  a  great  unmeasured  day  when 
human  society  shall  be  brought  into  a  state  of  positive 

1  See  Study  V. 

2  "  Holy."  The  Hebrew  word  is  a  form  of  Qodesh,  which  corre- 
sponds to  sacer,  lfp6s,  etc.,  meaning  "in  special  relation  to  God." 
That  relation  may  be  one  of  blessing  or  curse.  But  the  underlying 
idea  is  conformity  to  the  divine  character  manifested.  Hence  —  the 
experience  of  divine  communion,  or  if  non-conformity  is  manifested 
—  experience  of  divine  repulsion,  and  consequently  of  utter  destruc- 
tion. 

8  "  Loyalty."     Study  V.,  page  112. 
*  "  Exercises."     Study  V.,  page  124. 
6  "  Significance."     Study  VI.,  page  152. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  231 

blessedness  under  his  unchallenged  government.  The 
Israelitish  national  forms  of  loyal  profession,  of  social 
functions  and  exercises,  and  of  the  representation  of  the 
nature  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  may  have  vanislied  as  to 
forms.  But  God's  thoughts  do  not  change.  That  which 
kept  the  day  holy  as  observance,  a  festival  and  an"  insti- 
tution, still  keeps  it  holy.  And  as  before,  so  now,  the 
suspension  of  the  bread-winner's  ordinary  toil  and  the 
release  of  all  obligation  to  ordinary  toil,  is  not  the  keep- 
ing holy,  but  the  necessary  provision  to  enable  the  whole 
body  of  the  faithful  to  obey  this  command. 

Perfect  harmony  necessarily  reigns  through  all  the 
Word  as  through  all  the  world  of  God.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  embosomed  in  the  Old.  And  the  Eternal  Spirit 
who  superintends  the  development  of  the  Church,  having 
himself  inspired  both  New  and  Old,  has  led  on  that 
Church  first  into  practical  experience  of  revealed  truths 
and  then  into  more  and  more  adequate  expression  of 
their  order  and  relation.  He  has  led  the  Church  inces- 
santly to  repeat  the  Fourth  Commandment,  and  to  apply 
it,  though  perhaps  without  distinct  logical  perception  of 
its  bearing,  to  the  Lord's  Day.  When  the  command- 
ment is  studied,  not  with  the  glass  of  Jewish  recusancy,^ 
but  in  the  light  of  illustrations,  inspired  and  authorita- 
tive, and  set  beside  it  in  the  legislation  which  was  in- 
tended to  develop  through  the  nation  a  counterpart  to 
the  covenant  and  testimony  of  God  ;  then  its  application 
to  the  Lord's  Day  becomes  as  clear  and  intelligible  as  it 
is  apt  and  precise.  Israel  of  old  could  not  realize  in  the 
weekly  Sabbath  the  full  meaning  of  the  word,  "  keep  it 

^  "Recusancy."  There  is  a  sad  pathos  in  our  Lord's  word  (John 
■vii.  19),  "  and  yet  none  of  you  keepeth  the  law."  They  wanted  to 
kill  Hioi  for  not  conforming  to  their  notion  of  the  Sabbath  (vv.  22, 
23),  —  their  garbled,  clipped,  distorted  Sabbath.  They  frustrated 
the  commandment  of  God  that  they  might  keep  their  own  tradition, 
Mark  vii.  9,  margin,  comp.  Acts  xv.  10. 


232      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

hol3\"  A  great  system  was  devised  to  enable  the  nation  to 
make  that  realization  their  own.  Through  disobedience 
they  failed  to  obtain  that  which  was  intended  for  them. 
But  the  Church  has  received  it  through  Christ  her  Lord. 
She  can  and  does  keep  holy  her  Lord's  Day  with  a  full- 
ness and  accuracy  of  conformity  to  the  command,  such 
as  no  mere  Israelite,  ancient  or  modern,  ever  did  or  could 
experience  in  the  old  Sabbath.  To  the  believer,  but  not 
to  the  Israelite,  the  sacred  day  of  his  week  manifests,  in 
its  every  aspect,  holiness,^  the  common  ground,  the  basis 
of  union  between  God  and  his  redeemed. 

As  an  institution  the  Lord's  Day  is  a  perpetual  wit- 
ness of  the  organized,  equipped,  and  militant  realm  of 
holiness,  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord.  Its  existence  is  a 
testimony  to  the  whole  world  that  Christ  is  ruling. 
What  though  men  and  devils  rage !  Each  week  it  pro- 
claims Him  Lord  before  their  faces,  —  ruling  in  right- 
eousness absolute,  —  and  it  warns  to  be  reconciled,  lest 
they  perish  from  the  way  when  his  wrath  is 
kindled.  Every  state  which  recognizes  this 
institution  acknowledges  Christ.  Every  other  institu- 
tion of  society  which  the  law  recognizes  and  in  regard  to 
which  the  law  defines  any  duties,  privileges,  restraints, 
or  regulations,  is  common  to  mankind.  Heathen  of  all 
sorts,  Moslems,  or  whatever  else  they  may  be,  men  who 
have  made  laws  or  proposed  ethical  codes  have  been 
wont  to  consider  such  topics  as  rights  and  duties  in  rela- 
tion to  God  and  to  whatever  represented  Him,  in  regard 
to  the  family,  in  regard  to  property,  and  in  regard  to  the 
community.  Laws  of  states,  called  Christian,  may  be 
better  in  their  forms,  but  they  are  not  different  in  their 
subjects,  except  wherein  they  refer  to  this  one  daj^ 
This  legal  recognition  of  the  Lord's  Day  is  not  merely 
an  acknowledgment  of  Almighty  God,  the  one  God,  the 
1  "  Holiness."     Lev.  xi.  45 ;  1  Pet.  i.  15,  IG. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  233 

Creator.  The  use  of  tlie  week  is  sucli  an  acknowledg- 
ment. The  week  is  an  invariable,  perpetual,  arbitrary 
division  of  time,  having  no  natural  boundary  and  no  re- 
lation to  natural  phenomena,  but  established  and  main- 
tained solely  out  of  respect  for  the  prerogative  of  God.^ 
But  Jews  and  Moslems,  who  acknowledge  the  same  God 
and  keep  their  time  by  weeks,  have  no  part  in  Christ, 
and  therefore  no  Lord's  Day.  None  but  those  which, 
by  recognizing  the  Lord's  Day,  acknowledge  the  para- 
mount ^  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  can  be  prop- 
erly styled  Christian  states. 

1  The  spurious  character  of  the  Mohammedan  sacred  day  is  shown 
by  its  position  in  the  week  on  the  sixth  day.  The  week  is  marked 
or  constituted  by  the  recurrence  of  the  sacred  day  that  bounds  it. 
Both  the  seventh  day  and  the  first  day  have  a  logical  relation  to  it. 
But  the  sixth  day  is  an  illogical  intrusion,  a  clumsy  forgery,  a  self- 
evident  misconception. 

2  "  Paramount."  This  carries  with  it  the  whole  Decalogue.  It 
does  not  imply  that  the  Decalogue  should  be  the  basis  of  modern 
statute  law.  That  is  historically  descended  from  various  sources. 
But  it  does  imply  the  principle  that  whatever  is  contrary  to  the  Dec- 
alogue is  contrary  to  the  public  interest.  Consequently  no  such 
thing  ought  to  be  fostered  by  law,  —  heathen-worship,  infidel  teach- 
ing, blasphemous  display,  and  the  like.  How  far  government  should 
undertake  to  suppress  these  things  is  a  different  question.  But  if  it 
favor  them  at  all  while  recognizing  the  Lord's  Day,  it  is  a  state 
divided  against  itself,  poisoning  its  own  moral  consciousness.  The 
state's  duty,  in  upholding  the  Lord's  Day,  is  logically  evident.  It 
has  nothing  to  do  with  individual  worship.  It  does  not  appear  that 
the  Mosaic  law  made  attendance  on  the  convocation  compulsory. 
But  the  duty  of  the  Christian  state  is  threefold:  — 

1st.  In  its  own  provinces,  in  every  department  of  its  administra- 
tion and  legislation,  it  should  pay  official  respect  to  the  day,  in  or- 
der that,  so  far  as  any  action  of  the  state  is  concerned,  every  citizen 
may  have  no  hindrance  to  the  use  of  the  day  in  loyalty  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

2d.  So  far  as  is  reasonable,  it  must  protect  all  who  thus  use  the 
day  from  social  hindrances,  such  as  the  claims  of  employers,  the 
emergencies  of  commerce,  the  pressure  of  competition,  and  the  like. 


234      EIGHT  STUDIES   OF  THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

But  to  those  who  love  their  Lord's  appearing,  the  in- 
stitution is  something  more  than  a  testimony  or 
"an  acknowledgment.     It  is  a  promise.     It  typi- 
fies  and   foreshadows  the  Millennial  Day,  the  age-long 
reign  of  holiness.     It  is  as  full  of  living  hopes  as  the  old 
system  was  of  routine  and  drill.     Its  approaching  anti- 
type will  be  large,  exceeding  past  experience.     The  con- 
trast and  discord  between  opposing  social  principles  will 
cease,  and  selfishness  will  be  eliminated,  leaving  all  the 
Lord's  citizens  in  the  unison  of  purity  and  love.     The 
whole  organization    of    society    will  be  remodeled,    and 
every  one,  in  taking  the  place  assigned  him  by  his  Lord, 
will  joyfully  perceive  that  his  is  the  lot  of  greatest  hap- 
piness and  greatest  usefulness.     There  will  be  no  shame, 
no  dishonor,  but  perpetual  exaltation,  so  that  the  hum- 
Rev.  1:6-   blest  will  be  like  kings  and  priests.     There  will 
^^■^-         be  no  liability  to    mistake,  no  contingency  of 
harm,  no  exposure  to  neglect,  neither  hunger  nor  thirst, 
nor  pain  nor  any  ill,  for  the  providence  of  God 
will   be  immediate  and    manifest.     There  will 
be  no  isolation,  for  the  whole  realm  will  be  like  a  city  ; 
but  the   sympathy,  the    clear  intelligence,  the 
perfect  confidence  of  each  citizen  in  every  other 
will  be   so   pervasive,  that   every  motion  of  the  whole 
John  17:      ^^^^  ^^  ^'^^  ^  motioH  of  a  single  body,  —  a  per- 
^^'  feet  brotherhood,  —  all  one.     And  tiiere  will  be 

no  incompleteness  or  inadequacy  in  that  realm,  but  the 
blessedness  will  be  universal  and  positive  and  deep  in 
each  soul  as  its  love  to  the  Lord  of  all. 

In  discerning  these  her  glorious  hopes  and  promises,  — 
in  sustaining  the  legal  recognition,  by  the  state,  of  the 

3d.  In  its  discretion  it  must  also  repress  anything  which,  to  an  ex- 
tent warranting  its  interference,  mars  tlie  character  of  the  day  as  a 
public  celebration  of  homage  to  the  Lord.  But  necessity  and  mercy 
and  also  common  sense  are  to  be  duly  regarded. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  235 

day  which  typifies  them,  —  and  in  proclaiming  to  all  men 
the  imminence  of  their  fulfillment,  and  inviting  all  quickly 
to  be  reconciled  to  Him,  who  will  surely  come  to  destroy 
ever}^  enemy  and  to  suppress  every  vestige  of  unholiness, 
—  the  Church,  in  a  larger  and  deeper  sense  than  did 
Israel,  does  remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  — 
her  own  Sabbath,  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

In  another  aspect  of  the  Lord's  Day,  the  Church  sets 
forth  holiness  as  the  essential  basis  of  union  between 
God  and  his  redeemed,  when  she  celebrates  it  as  her 
festival.  Herein  also  she  is  far  in  advance  of  ancient 
Israel.  The  punishment  of  the  first  sin  took 
the  material  torm  of  a  curse  upon  the  ground. 
Man  was  sentenced  to  wrest  from  the  soil  the  means  of 
preserving  life,  with  the  disheartening  doom  of  failure, 
in  spite  of  all  the  soil  could  do  for  him.  Israel  was 
taught,  in  the  repeated  lessons  of  his  Sabbath  and  sab- 
batic system,  that  God  could  and  would  support  his  peo- 
ple without  that  tantalizing  struggle.  But  in  order  to 
learn  that  they  had  the  privilege,  as  God's  people,  of  sus- 
pending agricultural  toil  without  detriment,  they  were 
compelled  to  suspend  it.  And  yet  their  lesson  stopped 
short.  It  could  only  hint  or  typify  the  complete  removal 
of  the  curse.     Jesus,  our  Lord,  has  brought  life 

.  ,  ,         °  2  Tim.  1 :  10. 

and  immortality  to  light.  His  Day  is  not  only 
a  promise  but  also  a  foretaste  of  perfect  restoration.  It 
brings  to  the  Church  not  only  an  intermission  of  the 
bread-winner's  toil,  that  which  belongs  to  the  present 
temporary  earthly  condition,  but  also  an  energizing  and 
quickening  of  the  believer's  spiritual  activity,  that  which 
belongs  alike  to  her  present  and  future  condition  as 
united  to  her  Lord.  Hence  her  Sabbath,  the  Lord's  Day, 
much  more  ^  than  Israel's,  is  both  a  festival  and  a  holy 
festival.     It  is  richer  in  social  enjoyment,  privilege,  and 

1  "  Mucli  more."     See  "  better,"  Heb.  xi.  40  ;  vii.  19,  22  ;  viii.  6. 


236      EIGHT  STUDIES   OE  THE   LORD'S  DAY. 

encouragement,  and  it  affords  these  through  simpler  and 
more  spiritual  communion  with  God.  Because  her  Lord 
has  risen  on  this  da}^  from  the  dead,  the  Church  I'ejoices. 
Because  He  loved  her  unto  death  and  died  for  her,  she 
dares  to  find  in  the  memorials  of  his  death  the  pledge  of 
her  union  to  Him,  and  so  of  her  adoption  as  the  very 
family  of  God.  Because,  though  He  has  ascended  to 
heaven,  He  has  sent  his  Holy  Spirit  to  be  her  comforter 
and  guide,  she  expects  and  she  realizes  on  each  Lord's 
Day  an  enkindling  of  gratitude  and  courage.  Like  the 
old,  the  new  Sabbath  is  a  social  ^  day.  It  brings  to- 
gether parents  and  children,  friends  and  neighbors.  But 
it  opens  its  arms,  as  Israel  could  not,  with  free  and 
hearty  invitation  to  them  that  ai'e  without.  Like  the 
old,  it  is  a  day  of  mental  exercise,  when  the  thoughts  of 
children  and  sires  are  busied  upon  God's  dealings  with 
men.  But  it  apprehends,  as  Israel  could  not,  the  whole 
sweep  of  those  dealings  which,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
1  "  Social."  The  Lord's  Day  belongs  to  the  Church  or  Brother- 
hood of  Faith  in  its  entirety,  just  as  much  as  to  the  individual  Chris- 
tian. Its  "  rest"  provides  for  social  intercourse  as  well  as  for  social 
worship.  Our  Lord  would  seem  to  have  desired  that  his  followers 
should  be  as  perfectly  in  unison  with  one  another  as  with  Him.  In 
ordinary  circumstances  Christians,  like  other  men,  cannot  express 
their  loyalty  without  sociality.  But  the  day  of  loyalty  to  the  Lord 
should  not  be  a  day  for  promiscuous  sociality.  It  is  the  day  for  the 
communion  of  believers,  —  not  of  common  men.  It  may  be  impos- 
sible or  inexpedient  to  lay  down  any  rules  for  limiting  the  social 
character  of  the  day.  Christian  feeling  ought  to  be  the  best  guide. 
Two  things  are,  however,  certain.  To  attempt,  by  extraneous  and 
incongruous  accessories,  to  give  a  sort  of  religious  flavor  to  that 
which  would  be  otherwise  non-religious  (not  necessarily  irreligious) 
sociality,  is  cant,  and  must  be  offensive  to  the  Lord.  And  no  be- 
liever may,  without  sin,  offend  the  clear  convictions  of  the  brother- 
hood. Beyond  this,  Christians  must  be  free  to  their  own  consciences* 
How  the  use  of  the  Lord's  Day  for  travel,  business,  or  personal 
pleasure  (apart  from  necessity  and  mercy),  can  comport  with  loyalty 
to  the  Lord,  it  is  difficult  to  see. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  237 

consummation,  are  made  known  in  God's  completed  reve- 
lation. Like  the  old,  it  is  a  day  of  rest.  From  the 
urgency  of  bread-winning,  and  the  often  more  coercive 
spur  of  ambition,  it  is  a  respite,  a  vacation.  But  it 
speaks,  as  Israel  could  not,  with  a  plain  and  positive 
utterance,  of  a  better  rest,  —  a  perpetual  release  from  all 
urgenc}^  and  spurring,  and  from  every  wearing  or  wea- 
rying infliction  whatsoever,  —  an  epoch  of  holy,  blessed, 
and  perfectly  free  activity,  —  the  rest,  much  more  than 
rest,  the  unbroken  ease,  busj^,  loyal,  joyous  ease,  that 
shall  pervade  the  Messianic  kingdom  of  the  Lord. 

By  her  sociality,  pure  and  beneficent,  springing  spon- 
taneously from  the  feeling  of  common  relationship  to  her 
redeeming  Lord,  —  by  her  instruction,  sound,  comforting, 
and  stimulating,  having  as  its  premise  that  man  lives  by 
and  through  and  for  God,  and  edifying  and  building  up 
the  minds  of  believers  through  meditation  on  the  whole 
Word  of  God,  —  by  her  leisure,  detached  from  merely 
earthly  and  personal  affairs,  busy  with  the  activity  of 
holy  love,  and  inspired  to  private  prayer  and  jjublic  wor- 
ship, and  every  Christian  word  and  work  through  love  to 
the  Lord,  and  to  them  who  love  the  Lord,  and  to  them 
for  whom  the  Lord  died:  —  thus  the  Church,  in  a  wider 
and  happier  sense  than  did  Israel,  does  remember  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  — her  own  Sabbath,  the  holy 
festival  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

But  while  the  Church,  through  her  institution,  the 
Lord's  Day,  testifies  to  all,  both  within  and  without  her 
bounds,  of  the  organized  realm  of  holiness,  —  and  while 
she,  through  her  festival,  the  Lord's  Day,  celebrates  with 
all  her  membership  the  social  bond  of  holiness, — in  an- 
other aspect,  which  has  been  called  here  her  observance 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  the  Church  most  profoundly  keeps  it 
holy  and  makes  it  a  Sabbath,  when  she  professes  to  her 
Lord  himself  her  consecration  to  Him,  —  when  she  pre- 


238        EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

sents  herself  before  Him  in  full  assembly,  as  a  company 
of  those  who  desire  and  expect  to  become  perfectly  holy 
through  communion  and  union  with  Him.  In  this  is  the 
very  essence  and  substance  of  the  observance.  Concern- 
ing abstract  holiness  neither  Israel  of  old  nor  Christen- 
dom now,  can  realize  any  adequate  conception  ;  for  an 
adequate  conception  would  be  the  measure  of  the  Infinite 
Perfection  in  the  terms  of  mortal  philosophy,  and  we  can- 
not comprehend  our  Creator.  As  Israel  had  his  types  of 
Christ,  so  the  Church  has  to  apprehend  Christ  himself 
through  the  exercise  of  intellect,  affection,  and  volition  to- 
ward Him,  and  his  immediate  exercise  of  spiritual  influ- 
ence on  believing  minds  and  hearts.  Perceiving  in  Him 
both  the  perfect  type  and  consummate  flower  of  human- 
ity, the  complete  ideal  of  all  that  the  imagination  can 
admire  and  honor  and  love  in  manhood,  and  also  the  rev- 
erend majesty  of  Eternal  Deity,  the  Church  looks  upon 
Him  as  the  centre  of  her  thought,  the  centre  of  her  hope, 
the  ultimate  reason  and  cause  of  her  being  in  existence 
and  of  her  being  what  she  is,  the  guaranty  of  her  future, 
the  satisfaction  of  all  her  desire,  —  her  absolute,  perfect, 
transcendent  Lord,  and  her  very  own  Lord,  —  her  own 
by  a  tie  inseparable  as  his  own  person.  Whatever  holi- 
ness may  be,  it  is  his  nature,  and  the  Church  shall  share 
it  with  Him.  It  is  not  abstract.  It  is  not  philosophical. 
It  is  personal. 

As  therefore  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  ^  was  the  seal  and  the 
sacrament  of  Israel's  loyalty  to  Jehovah,  so  precisely  is 

1  Let  not  the  reader  forget  that  the  commandment  does  not 
specify  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  but  only  the  seventh  day.  The 
ordinances  which  made  the  seventh  day  of  the  -week  so  emiihatic 
were  Mosaic,  and  so  of  divine  authority,  but  they  were  not,  like  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  immediately  from  God.  And  while  they  em- 
phasized the  seventh  day  of  the  week  they  also  showed  that  empha- 
sis as  transient  and  set  forth  a  Sabbath  day  which  should  be  the  first 
day  of  the  week  in  the  future. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  239 

the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  the  seal  and  sacrament 
of  the  Church's  loyalty  to  her  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  After 
living  six  days  in  the  performance  of  duties,  and  in  the 
enjoyment  of  blessings  as  private  citizens  of  the  Lord's 
kintrdom,  and  too  conscious  of  the  strength  of  surround- 
ing forces  and  influences  hostile  to  that  kingdom,  believ- 
ers come  on  the  seventh  day,  the  first  day  of  each  new 
week,  the  Lord's  Day,  to  a  public  duty  to  their  King,  and 
to  an  experience  not  merely  of  private  religion,  but  of 
the  public  beauty  and  harmony  and  security  and  capacity 
of  their  King's  realm,  the  empire  of  Christianity.  They 
come  on  the  day  that  bounds  a  week,  because  the  week 
is  a  divine  institution,  whose  terminal  day  has  been  kept 
from  the  beginning  by  men  who  worshiped  God,  —  and 
their  Lord  is  God.  They  come  on  the  first  —  not  the 
last  1  —  day  of  the  week,  because,  as  Moses  prophesied, 
this  has  become  the  sacred  day  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion, for  which  Moses'  institutions  showed  themselves 
preparative  ;  and  because  their  Lord  has  made  it  his  day, 
not  only  by  the  fact  of  his  resurrection  but  also  by  his 
absence  for  the  ensuing  six  days  and  by  making  his  sec 
ond  visit  on  the  first  day  of  the  next  week.  They  come 
to  perform  a  public  duty  to  their  Lord,  —  a  duty  which 
never  fell  upon  patriarch  or  Israelite,  —  a  duty  which  is 
peculiarly   Christian,  as   distinguished  from   all   other  ^ 

^  To  repudiate  the  Lord's  Day  is  practically  to  refuse  public  hom- 
age to  our  Lord's  divinity.  The  whole  Christian  age  is  not  one  long 
Sabbath,  any  more  than  it  is  one  long  heaven  —  or  one  prolonged 
epoch  of  millennial  felicity.  It  is  true  that  the  sunlight  of  the  resur- 
rection has  ever  since  circled  round  and  round  the  planet  continuing 
one  world-day.  But  the  sunlight  did  not  see  the  rising.  Before  the 
sun  appeared,  He  rose.  The  Lord's  Day  is  like  other  days.  It  be- 
gins in  the  night  and  ends  the  following  night.  Before  man  there 
may  have  been  age-long  world  days.  But  for  man  the  day  is  the 
alternation  of  darkness  and  light. 

2  "All  other."  It  is  historically  true  that  no  other  religious 
preachinw  has  ever  rested  on  the  principles  laid  down  by  our  Lord. 


240       EIGHT  STUDIES   OF   THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

moral  or  religious  duties,  acknowledged  among  all  other 
ages,  races,  or  faiths,  —  a  duty  not  only  laid  upon  his  fol- 
lowers most  solemnly  by  the  Lord,  but  put  as  a  perpetual 
fire  within  their  hearts  and  tongues,  on  that  day  when 
the  voice  of  God  speaking  to  men  from  lonely  Sinai  was 
supplemented  by  the  voice  of  God  speaking  through  men 
in  crowded  city  streets,  —  when  the  covenant  and  the 
testimony  formerly  hidden  beneath  the  mercy-seat  in  the 
typical  ark  began  to  be  published  to  the  world  as  living 
and  effective  for  reunion  to  God,  through  the  veritable 
and  actual  person  of  Christ.  The  tongue  of  the  Chui'ch 
is  this  day  given  to  her  Lord.  She  tells  his  story,  she 
declares  his  purposes,  she  confesses  her  faith  on  Him,  she 
expresses  her  loyalty. 

And  believers  come  this  day  not  only  to  a  public  duty 
but  also  to  an  imperial  experience.  Theirs  is  no  local 
fellowship,  no  loose  association,  no  limited  community. 
It  girdles  the  round  globe.  It  enfolds .  every  beating 
heart  wherein  the  Holy  Ghost  has  created  new  life.  It 
swells  and  towers  and  broadens  far  beyond  all  the  mate- 
rial progress  of  the  age.  Nothing  is  so  comprehensive, 
nothing  so  strong,  nothing  so  permanent.  All  the  good 
and  profit  of  humanity,  all  the  interests  of  person  and 
property,  of  the  family  and  society,  of  art  and  educa- 
tion, of  mechanical  progress,  of  material  and  of  moral 
improvement,  are  absolutely  safe,  are  absolutely  secure, 
under  the  sway  of  Christianity,  —  and  nowhere  else. 
The  Lord  is  good  to  all.  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all 
bis  works.     His  empire  is  pure   and  positive  blessing. 

Many  others  have  zealously  attempted  prosel}- tism.  So  far  Chris- 
tianity stands  with  them,  for  the  Church  aims  to  disciple  all  nations. 
But  the  Church  alone,  and  no  other  propaganda  known  to  history, 
has  had  the  burden  of  testimony.  Whether  men  hear  or  forbear,  it  is 
her  duty  to  bear  witness  to  them  of  the  truth.  Her  great  commission 
is  to  preach  to  every  one  —  to  win  all  if  possible,  but  whether  win- 
ning them  to  the  covenant  or  not  to  give  her  testimony  of  Christ. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  241 

And  it  is  already  an  empire  —  vast,  diverse,  composite. 
Each  believer  has  an  imperial  duty.  The  empire  is  not 
to  be  managed  by  him  nor  by  all  his  brethren  without 
the  Lord  —  neither  is  it  managed  by  the  Lord  without 
them  and  him.  For  all  that  the  Church  is,  for  all  she 
may  do  and  for  all  she  may  become,  each  member  has 
his  own  responsibility  and  his  own  free  spontaneity. 
Whatever  he  does  counts  as  his  heart  moves  him.  So  on 
this  day  he  lays  his  heart  against  the  million-fold  heart 
of  the  Church  to  feel  her  vast,  deep,  triumphant  life.  He 
rises  on  the  wave  of  psalms  that  have  surged  westward 
from  the  Pacific  shores  with  this  day's  tide  of  sunlight, 
and  still  roll  onward  to  complete  their  circuit.  He  sees 
with  the  mental  eye,  as  the  framing  and  the  background 
of  all  the  instruction,  comfort,  and  encouragement  which 
precept  and  promise  and  prophecy  afford,  a  view  of  the 
thronged  city  of  God,  of  the  splendid  capital  and  man- 
sions of  the  redeemed,  of  the  magnificent  harmony  and 
busy  ease  and  consummate  civilization  of  the  Lord's 
kingdom.  He  breathes,  while  lifted  up,  the  fragrance  of 
many  voiced  prayer  that  on  this  day  enwraps  the  earth, 
as  a  film  of  the  resonant  air  of  heaven ;  and  in  this  brac- 
ing atmosphere  his  veins  tingle  with  consciousness  of 
unlimited  desire  and  capacity  and  destiny,  his  own,  and 
the  Church's  own,  when  the  Lord  shall  come. 

And  so  —  on  the  day  that  marks  God's  authority  over 
human  times,  —  on  the  day  our  Lord  has  honored  as  his 
official  day  before  his  Church,  —  on  the  day  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  has  sealed  as  the  epoch  of  the  new  covenant 
(the  New  Testament),  —  on  this  day  believers  come  to- 
gether as  a  public  body  to  give  their  public  testimony  of 
loyalty ;  they  come  together  as  an  official  body  clothed 
each  one  with  responsibility  and  with  authority  to  share 
in  administering  the  Lord's  earthly  empire  ;  and  they 
come  together,  that  they  may  together  commune  with 

1  IG 


/ 


242      EIGHT  STUDIES  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

the  Lord.  While  enthused  before  the  mystery  of  his 
person,  wherein  the  brotherhood  of  man  blends  with  di- 
vine sonship,  —  while  absorbed  in  the  w^onder  of  his  love, 
which,  stronger  than  death,  by  the  intensity  of  its  sacrifice, 
transmutes  ^  the  universal  curse  into  a  universal  privilege, 
—  while  transfigured  with  the  beauty  of  his  nature  re- 
flected somewhat  within  each  one,  and  diffused  over  the 
spiritual  aspect  of  the  world-circling  commemoration,  — 
a  tender  awe  falls  upon  the  assembly :  the  Lord  is  there. 
Then,  like  the  earlier  patriarchs,  and  like  Israel  at  Pen- 
tecost, the  feast  of  Weeks,  the  Church  partakes  together  of 
the  sacrificial  meal.^   Each  one  realizes  that  it  is  the  Lord 

^  "  Transmutes."  He  that  findeth  liis  life  shall  lose  it  ;  and  he 
that  losetli  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  Matt.  x.  39;  xvii.  35; 
Mark  viii.  35;  Luke  ix.  24;  xvii.  33;  John  xii.  25,  a  remarkable  repe- 
tition. 

2  Public  worship  and  the  Lord's  Supper  have  always  differed  in 
respect  to  the  persons  particiiiating.  To  the  former  all  have  been 
welcomed  who  would  receive  instruction,  or  would  in  any  degree  ac- 
knowledge the  Lord.  To  the  latter  none  have  been  admitted  who 
were  not  fully  acknowledged  by  the  Church  as  members.  Conse- 
quently the  Eucharist  is  in  this  respect  the  Church's  ^jru-fl^e  worship. 
Its  administration,  therefore,  has  of  course  been  arranged  according 
to  the  varying  conditions  of  expediency  as  determined  by  the  Church; 
not  restricted  to  Sundays  alone,  nor  appointed  necessarily  for  every 
Sunday,  and  yet  ordinarily  occurring  on  Sunday  as  its  most  fit  time. 
In  this  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  guided  the 
Church.  She  is  to  show  forth  the  Lord's  death  not  by  a  public  cele- 
bration of  the  supper  (for,  as  a  matter  of  history,  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
not  led  her  to  a  celebration  that  may  properly  be  called  public),  but 
by  a  Kara-yyeAfa,  1  Cor.  xi.  26,  as  distinguished  perhaps  from  a  irapay- 
yeKla  (for  example,  Acts  v.  28),  that  is,  a  declaration  which  has  its 
force  on  the  spot  where  it  is  made  (koto),  and  does  not  depend  for 
that  effect  upon  its  passing  over  (irapd)  to  some  separate  party.  She 
shows  it  forth  to  herself,  to  her  own  members,  and  to  her  own  Lord. 
Public  worship  is  not  limited  to  the  Lord's  Day,  but  it  is  historically, 
and  by  its  essential  character,  a  necessary  feature  of  the  day.  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  a  duty  of  the  Church  to  herself  and  to  her  Lord. 
Public  worship  is  a  duty  to  the  Lord,  to  herself,  and  to  the  whole 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT.  243 

■who  died  for  him  a  sinner;  who  redeemed,  reconciled, 
saved  him  by  giving  his  own  body  to  be  bruised  for  him, 
his  own  blood  to  be  sprinkled  on  the  soil  for  him.  Each 
one  perceives  that  the  whole  aggregate  of  like-minded 
souls,  who  commune  thus  with  their  Lord,  are  inseparably 
joined  together  by  this  communion  in  one  body,  and  this 
body  is  the  Lord's  own  body,  living,  growing,  the  organ 
of  his  spirit,  the  eternal  and  tiie  holy  temple  of  his  own 
divine  humanity.  And  each  one  apprehends  that  the 
Lord  of  all  is  the  man  Jesus,  Him  whose  quivering  body 
was  torn,  whose  warm  blood  was  shed,  who  rested  in 
Joseph's  tomb,  and  awoke  in  immortal  humanity,  and 
rose  above  man's  observation  or  comprehension,  before 
the  apostles'  eyes,  and  dwells  now  in  occupation  that  we 
can  only  most  dimly  conceive  as  we  lift  our  uneducated 
eyes  with  loving  awe  and  dependent  reverence  toward  his 
Majesty,  —  Jesus,  the  very  man,  our  brother,  —  Jesus  en- 
throned at  the  right  hand  of  God,  himself  incomprehen- 
sibly transfigured  with  the  outshining  of  his  -^^^  ^3 .  g 
own  divinity,  —  but  himself,  —  the  Lamb  slain  Eph.  i:  22, 
through  the  ages,  himself,  —  the  Head  over  his  coi.  1 :  is. 
own  body,  the  Church, —  himself,  the  same  Acts  i:  11. 
Jesus  who  ascended  from  Olivet,  who  will  come  1  cor.  15 : 

24,  25. 

again  in  his  own  day,  (who  knows  how  soon  ?) 
to  put   down   all  enmity,    to  establish   all  au-  j,^^^     . 
thority,    to    reign    in    righteousness    over    his  neve's  ^lo^^' 
Church,  and  with  his  Church  over  the  universe  !  20  :  4,6. 
Even  so.  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.     We  wait  thy  day. 

world.     The  distinction   in  the  Greek  words  above  referred  to  is 
not  always  accurately  observed. 


INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURES  REFERRED  TO. 


[The  figures  on  the  left  of  the  column  refer  to  the  chapter  and  Terse  of  the  book  cited  ; 
those  on  the  right  to  the  Study  and  the  page  of  this  work.] 


GENESIS. 

I vii.  200 

2.  3 iii.  56 

2.  3 Yiii.  209 

3.  17 viii.  2o5 

4.  3-5 iv.  95,  97 

4.  14 vii.  167 

4.  15 vii.  171 

4.  24 vii.  171 

4.  26 iv.94 

7.  1,16 iv.  77 

7.  1 iv.  79 

7.4 iv.  79,  98 

7.  10 iv.  79,  83 

7.  11 iv.  79,  98 

7.  13 iv.  80 

7.  16 iv.  80 

7.20 iv.  82 

7.  24 iv.  81 

8.3 iv.  81 

8.  4 iv.  80 

8.  5-7 iv.  80 

8.8-12 iv.  80 

8.  21 iv.95 

12.  2 iv.  85 

12.  3 V.  107 

14.  14 V.  105 

14.  18 iv.  96 

18.  18 V.  107 

20.  14 V.  105 

21.  28-31 vii.  172 

22.  18 V.  107 

26.  4 V.  107 

26.  12 iv.  99 

26.  14,  19 V.  105 

26.  26-23 vii.  172 

28.  14 V.  107 

29.27,  28 vii.  182 

30.  43 V.  105 

38.  12 V.  105 

41.  18-30 vii.  171 

EXODUS. 

5.  1,  3 vii.  170 

5.  1-3 viii.  210 


8.  26. 
8.  27. 
2.  2.. 

2.16. 

2.  16. 
2.  16. 
2.  18. 
2.  20. 


.   Vll. 

.viii. 


170 
240 


.  .Vll. 

.viii. 


23' 


26,  27 V. 

25,27 vii. 

27 vii. 

38 V. 

23 vii. 

22-30 iv 

22-30 vii. 

5 viii. 

10-25 viii. 

1 viii. 

10 viii. 

18,19 viii. 

24,  25 iv 

5,6 


10. 

11... 

11... 

15... 

16... 

1-18. 


130, 


.vi.  130, 
vii. 


16-21 viii.  219, 

40 vii. 

42,  43 V. 

7 viii. 

12-17 V. 

12-17 vii. 

14 V. 

15 vii. 

18 viii.  219, 

15 viii. 

viii. 

viii. 

viii. 


16... 
19... 
1-28. 
20., 
22... 


27,28 viii. 

29 viii. 

2 vii. 

2 vii 


117 
203 
229 
199 
116 
124 
178 
178 
105 
180 
.  79 
160 
220 
218 
218 
226 
218 
.97 
142 
140 
146 
189 
116 
177 
118 
146 
220 
200 
117 
220 
112 
186 
111 
180 
220 
220 
219 
222 
219 
116 
178 
220 
220 
160 
180 


246      INDEX  OF  SCRIPTUnES  REFERRED   TO. 


35.3 V.  114 

35.  3 vii.  100 

35.  3 vii.  203 

38 V.  117 

38.  21 viii.  220 

LEVITICUS. 

8.  3,  4 V.  117 

II.  45 viii.  232 

16.  31 vii.  181 

19.  18 viii.  221 

23.  1-3 v.  IIG 

23.  3 vii.  180 

23.  3 viii.  229 

23.3 V.  117 

2^.  6 vii.  173 

23.7 v.  117 

23.  7 viii.  229 

23.  7,8 vii.  170 

23.  8 V.  117 

23.  8 viii.  229 

23.  11 vii.  180 

23.  l.'j vii.  181 

23.  17 vii.  179 

23.  17,  20 vii.  178 

23.  19,  20 vii.  179 

23.  21 V.  117 

23.  21 viii.  227 

23.  24,  27 V.  116 

23.  24 vii.  180 

23.  24 V.  117 

23.  24,  25 viii.  229 

23.  25 V.  117 

23.  27 V.  117 

23.27-32 V.  117 

23.  27,  28 viii.  229 

23.  27-32 vii.  181 

23.  32 vii.  180 

23.  32 vii.  181 

23.  34-36 V.  116 

23.  35 V.  117 

22-  35 viii.  229 

23.  35 vii.  176 

23.  36 V.  117 

23.  .36 vii.  176 

23.  .36 viii.  229 

23.  39 vii.  174 

23.  39 vii.  180 

23.  43 vii.  178 

25.  2-7 vi.  130,  146 

25.  4 vii.  181 

25.  9 iv.  85 

25.  11 vii.  181 

25.  15 vii.  181 

25.  6 viii.  209 

25.  20-22 vii.  189 

26.  34 vi.  150 

26.  35 vi.  150 


NUMBERS. 

I.  50,  .53 viii.  2-30 

3.  12,  39-51 V.  120 

6.  24-26 V.  121 

10.  3 V.  117 

iq.  10 iv.  85 

10.  33 viii.  220 

15.  32-30 v.  Ill;  vii.  160 

16.  9,  10 v.  120 

18.  1-7 V.  120 

18.  24 V.  121 

20.  7-12 iv.  98 

21.  19 V.  117 

25.6 V.117 

28.  9,  10 V.  110 

28.  11-15 V.  110 

28.  16,17 vii.  178 

28.  18 V.  117 

28.  18 vii.  176 

28.  18 viii.  229 

28.  25 vii.  176 

28.  25,  26 V.  117 

28.  26 vii.  178 

28.  25 viii.  229 

28.  26 viii.  229 

29.  1 viii.  229 

29.  1-6 V.  110 

29.  1,  7,  12,  35 V.  117 

29.  7 viii.  229 

29.  12 vii.  176 

29.  12 viii.  229 

29.  35 vii.  176 

29.  .35 viii.  229 

36.  6,12 vi.  139 

DEUTERONOMY. 

4.  2 v.  119 

4.  11,  12,  15 viii.  218 

4.  13 viii.  220 

5.  14 V.  115 

5.  4,  5,22-26 ; viii.  218 

6.  5 viii.  221 

6.  6-9 V.  123 

6.  7 V.  124 

6.20-25 V.  124 

9.  9,  11 viii.  220 

10.  8 v.  121 

10.  1-4 viii.  219 

10.  5 viii.  219 

10.  8 viii.  220 

II.  24 vi.  155 

12.  5-27 V.  109 

12.  11-14 vii.  159 

12.  12-18 V.  121 

15.  1-18 vi.  130 

16.  1 vii.  178 

16.3 vii.  178 


INDEX   OF  SCRIPTURES  REFERRED   TO.      247 


i6.  n,  U vii.  178 

i6.  8 viii.  229 

i6.  10 vii.  178 

i6.  10,  11 V.  117 

i6.  IB V.  116 

21.  1-5 V.  121 

27.  5 iv.  97 

27.  9,  14 V.  120 

27.  14 V.  119 

27.  1.5-26 V.  123 

27.  26 vii.  200 

31.  7,2.5,  26 viii.  220 

31.9-13 vii.  188 

31.  10,  13 v.  123 

31.  10-13 vi.  130 

31.  26,  27 viii.  220 

32.  7 V.  124 

33-10 V.120 

JOSHUA. 

4.  6,  7 V.  124 

14.  7,  10 vii.  187 

22.  14 vi.  139 

24.  29 vii.  187 

JUDGES. 

I.  7 v..ii.  172 

8.  30,39 vii.  172 

FIRST  SAMUEL. 

4.  11 viii.  222 

9.23 vi.  134 

9.  12-14 vi.  134 

9.  19,  25 vi.  1.34 

9.  22 vi.  134 

FIRST  KINGS. 

5.  15 vii.  172 

II.  3 vii.  172 

18.  29,  36 v.  117 

SECOND  KINGS. 

10.  1 vii.  172 

11.  1 vii.  172 

12.  1 vii.  172 

SECOND  CHRONICLES 

29.  32 vii.  172 

36.  18 viii.  222 


36.  21 V.  104 

36.  21 vi.  150 

ESTHER. 
2.  16 vii.  172 

PSALMS. 

34.11 V.  124 

40-.  8 vii.  185 

44.  1 v.  124 

78.3 V.  12-t 

81.  3 iv.  85 

104.  4 viii.  218 

106.  48  V.  123 

141. 2 V.  117 

PROVERBS. 

I.  8 V.  124 

4.  1 V.  124 

5.  1-7 V.  124 

7.  14 vi.  1.34 

S.  32 V.  124 

17.  1 vi.  134 

ISAIAH. 

I.  14 V.  115 

32.  1 viii.  243 

40.  8 viii.  207 

58.  13 V.  103 

61.  2 iv.  88 

JEREMIAH. 

31.33 vii.  185 

31.  31-34 vii.  204 

34.  13,  14 V.  104 

34.  13,  14 vi.  150 

EZEKIEL. 

II.  16,20 vii.  185 

20.  1 vii.  172 

20.  12 V.  112 

22.  8,  16,  24,  26 V.  115 

23.  .38 V.  115 

36.26,  27 vii.  185 

HOSEA. 
II.  1 vii.  194 


248      INDEX   OF  SCRIPTURES  REFERRED   TO. 


ZECIIARIAH. 
14-  19 vii.  176 

MA  LAC  III. 
4-6 - V.  124 

IMATTHEW. 

2.  15 vii.  194 

5-17 iii.  57 

10.  39 viii.  242 

12.  11 V.  115 

12.  14 vii.  -202 

17-  3.5 viii.  ^42 

19-  21 vi.  151 

22.  20-29 viii.  221,  225 

26.  26 vii.  159 

27-  16 ii.  47 

28.  1 ii.  30 

28.10 ii.  48 

28.  17 ii.  44 

28.  19 v.  120 

MARK. 

2.  27 vii.  157 

3-6   vii.  202 

7-  9 viii.  231 

8.  35 viii.  242 

9-  9 ii.  42 

10.  17-22 vi.  145 

10.  27 viii.  221 

12.  28-31 viii.  221.  225 

14-22 .    .vii.  159 

16.  14 ii.  43 

16.  2,  9 ii.  30 

LUKE. 

9-24 .-.viii.  242 

10.  28 viii.  221 

14-5 V.  115 

17-  33 vii.  242 

22.  19 vii.  159 

24.  1 ii.  30 

24-13-35 ii.  41 

24.  21 ;..ii.  41 

24.  19 ii.  41 

24.  38 ii.  43 

24.  41 ii.  43 

JOHN. 

1.  21 vi.  155 

4-23,  24   viii.  216 

7-  1"   viii.  231 

7-  22,  23 viii   231 

12.  25 viii.  242 

17-  11 viii.  234 


19-  31 vii.  176 

19-  39 ii.  50 

20.  1,  19 ii.  30 

20.  19,  26 ii.  40 

20.  20 ii.  43 

20.  28 ii.  47 

21.1-14 ii.  47,48 

ACTS. 

I.  11 viii.  243 

I.  35 ii.  50 

1.  1-t ii.  50 

2.  1 ii.  50 

4-  28 viii.  -207 

5-  28 viii.  242 

7-44  viii.  -201 

7-  53 viii.  218 

11.26 ii.  .36 

15-  10 viii.  231 

16.  11,  12 ii.  53 

20.  0 ii.  53 

20.  7 vii.  193 

20.  Ifi ii.  54 

26.  28 ii.  36 

ROMANS. 

1-4 ii..37 

3-  21,  22 iii.  57 

5-  9 viii.  222 

5-  18 viii.  2-22 

5.  19 viii.  222 

8.  17 vii.  1.58 

8.  17 viii.  243 

II.  17,  24 iii.  57 

II.  24 vii.  159 

22.  10 viii.  225 

FIRST  CORINTHIANS. 

3-  9 viii.  216 

10.  7 V.  110,  115 

11.  20 viii.  242 

15.  5-7 ii.  38,  47 

IS-  24,  25 viii.  243 

15-  25 vi.  126 

16.  17 ii.  52,  53 

16.1,  2 ii.  52 

SECOND  CORINTHIANS. 

6.  1 viii.  216 

9-C ii.  53 

GALATIANS. 

3-  T-9 iii.  57 

3-  10 vii.  200 

3-  1« vi.  156 

3.  19 V.108 


INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURES  REFERRED   TO.      249 


3.  19 viii.  218,  221 

3.  21 V.  108 

3.  24 vi.  120 

3.  24 viii.  222 

4.  1 viii.  21G 

EPHESIANS. 

1.  22,  23 viii.  243 

2.  20 iii.  57 

COLOSSIANS. 

I.  12 vii.158 

1.  18 viii.  243 

2.  17 viii.  221 

3-H i-1 

SECOND  TIMOTHY. 

1.  10 viii.  235 

2.12 viii.  243 

4.  8 viii.  234 

HEBREWS. 

1.7 viii.  218 

2.  2 viii.  218 

2.  8 vi.  12G 

5.  9 viii.  222 

7.19,  22 viii.  235 

8.  5 vii.  200 

8.  6 viii.  235 

8.8-12 vii.  204 

8.5 viii.  221 

9.  1-14 viii.  221 

9.4 viii.  220,221 

10.  1 vii.  201 

10.  14 viii.  222 

II.  4 iv.  95,  9G 


11.  40 viii.  235 

12.  18-21 viii.  218 

FIRST  PETER. 

I.  10-12 iv.l27 

1.  15,  16 viii.  232 

1.25 viii.  207 

2.  17 vi.  141 

2.  22 viii.  222 

3.  20 iv.lOl 

4.6 ii.  3G 

SECOND  PETER. 
2.  5.. iv.  100,  101 

JUDE. 
14.15 iv.  100,  101 

REVELATION. 
I.  6 viii.  2.34 

1. 10 ii.  .34 

I.  10 vii.  193 

4.  8 vii.  204 

5.  10 viii.  243 

7.  15 vii.  204 

II.  19 viii.  221,  223 

13.  8 viii.  243 

15.  5 viii.  220,  221,  223 

19.  9 viii.  223 

19.  11 vi.  126 

20.  4 viii.  243 

20.  6 viii.  234,  243 

20.  15 vi.  126 

21.  4 viii.  234 

21 viii.  234 

22.  18,19 V.  119 


a  ^ 


DATE  DUE 

0^  ^^ 

^ 

P^ 

ifW*"* 

^ 

Demco,  Inc.  38-293 

